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FUMIGATION (from Lat. fumigare, to smoke)
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FUMIGATION (from Lat. fumigare, to smoke), the process of producing smoke or fumes, as by burning sulphur, frankincense, tobacco, &c., whether as a ceremony of incantation, or for perfuming a room, or for purposes of disinfection or destruction of vermin. In medicine the term has been used of the exposure of the body, or a portion of it, to fumes such as those of nitre, sal-ammoniac, mercury, &c.; fumigation, by the injection of tobacco smoke into the great bowel, was a recognized procedure in the 18th century for the resuscitation of the apparently drowned. " Fumigated " or " fumed " oak is oak which has been darkened by exposure to ammonia vapour.