emetic

Bleeding, purges and emetics were still used to cure disease.

Treatment involved a “toxic arsenal of emetics, laxatives, diuretics, and expectorants” as well as “lances, leeches, and blisters.”

You’ll still find yourself treading some familiar territory; I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve sprinkled emetic rat poison in a cocktail to earn some quality alone time with a target in the toilet.

The word itself – meaningless, infantile, a bit 80s and decidedly naff – is emetic enough without the inefficiency, the pointlessness, the utterly wasted time and opportunity of a procedure that fixes precisely nothing.

The next night, Rhodes began vomiting again - “you’re pretty coherent, you go in and out of it” - and the emetic foetus reappeared.