Crepitus

Crepitus /ˈkrɛpɪtəs/ (also termed crepitation) is a medical term to describe the grating, crackling or popping sounds and sensations experienced under the skin and joints or a crackling sensation due to the presence of air in the subcutaneous tissue.

Various types of crepitus that can be heard in joint pathologies are:

Causes

The sound can be created when two rough surfaces in an organism's body come into contact—for example, in osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis when the cartilage around joints has eroded away and the surfaces in the joint start to grind against one another, or when the fracture surfaces of two broken bones rub together. Crepitus is a common sign of bone fracture.

Crepitus (mythology)

Crepitus is an alleged Roman god of flatulence. It is unlikely that Crepitus was ever actually worshipped. The only ancient source for the claim that such a god was ever worshipped comes from Christian satire. The name Crepitus standing alone would be an inadequate and unlikely name for such a god in Latin . The god appears, however, in a number of important works of French literature.

Sources of the legend

The origin of the myth of a god of flatulence is somewhat obscure, and it is possible that the existence of this god is an invention. No ancient polytheistic source appears for such a deity.

The earliest mention of a god of flatulence is as an Egyptian, not a Roman deity. This comes from the hostile pen of the author of the Recognitions dubiously attributed to Pope Clement I, in which it is reported that:

It is unlikely that Clement I was the author of the extant Recognitiones; these are extant chiefly in a Latin translation, presumably out of the original Greek, made by Tyrannius Rufinus in the late fourth or early fifth century. The passage of Pseudo-Clement stands within a Western Christian tradition of satire against the variety of minor deities worshipped by classical pagans; similar passages exist in The City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Tertullian's Ad Nationes.