CONSTIPATION. 



345 



remedy, however, proved no less fatal than the disease. A 

 good deal of information is to be obtained in such a case as 

 this by a thorough examination of the rectum : this, in con- 

 junction with inspection and feeling of the abdomen, will 

 now and then afford a clue to the nature of the existing 

 stoppage, and thus offer some prospects, faint though they be, 

 to the solution and recovery of the case. By means of an 

 elastic (bougie-like) tube, which through its pliability, may 

 follow the flexures of the gut, and penetrate farther along 

 the canal than an inflexible clyster-pipe, clysters may after- 

 wards be forced up to reach nearly, or quite as far as the 

 obstruction : and above all injections, tobacco-smoke will 

 be the most likely to permeate to such an extent. This 

 smoke enema may be administered through the same appa- 

 ratus (Read^s syringe) as the ordinary clyster is : the syringe 

 requiring only, for the ignition of the tobacco, a metallic 

 cylinder or box to be fixed to the nozzle of the syringe. 



The annexed woodcut will show the method of applying 

 the apparatus. Two men are wanted to work it properly. 



