foetor

Halitosis, foetor ex ore, or bad breath, is a condition affec ting comparatively large sec tion of the population .Bad breath in the oral cavity is mainly ascribed to the produc tion of volatile sulfur compounds ( VSC) predominantly by Gram negative anaerobes residing in periodontal pockets and on the tongue dorsum.35 I t has been shown that bacteriotherapy can also improve this condition.

Its purpose was, allegedly, to eliminate the so-called foetor Judaicus (i.e., "the Jewish stink"), and other grotesque and repulsive purposes.

"Only submit to baptism," they enjoined us, their words translated into Yiddish by a mincing convert, "and you will no longer menstruate; your dorsal appendages will drop off and you will lose your foetor judaicus." They were accompanied by a boozy lance corporal who threatened to pound us into blood pudding if we didn't forswear our faith.

Most importantly, when faced with the "awful, blasphemous horror, and the unbelievable loathsomeness and moral foetor [that] came from the simple touches quite beyond the power of words to classify"; when confronted by Pickman's skill in "daemonic portraiture," whereby "the nauseous wizard had waked the fires of hell in pigment, and his brush had been a nightmare-spawning wand" (18-19); even the urbane viewer, represented by Pickman's colleagues, cannot look upon his work with the objectifying gaze common to an aesthetic contemplation of art.

It possesses the desirable qualities of rendering the teeth beautifully white; destroying the foetor arising from carious teeth, which contaminates the breath; and stopping the progress of the scurvy in the gums: at the same time, that it is incapable of either chemically or mechanically injuring the enamel.

With a whiff of foetor judaicus, this passage makes a strong correlation between Jew and excrement, pointing to the sewer as the place where a Jew can be found; perhaps he belongs there.

That is why they cannot "be smelled out." Shapiro's book rehearses fantasies about the Jewish body (the foetor judaicus, and dark-skinned, effeminized men who menstruate and breast-feed).

The smell that follows Dracula recalls the medieval tradition of the `Jewish odour' (the foetor judaicus).