CLASS T. 3. 1. 7, OF IRR1T ATIOX. 1 35 



taken, be particularly serviceable in this circumstance? Or 

 could half a pound, or a pound, of crude mercury be injected as 

 a clyster, the patient being elevated by the knees and thighs so 

 as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom, 

 or even for a short time held up by the heels? Could this also 

 be of advantage in strangulated hernia? 



Where there exists an introsusception of the intestine, or in 

 obstinate costiveness, perhaps a forcing pump, such as gardeners 

 employ to water their trees, might be used with advantage, by 

 driving warm water forcibly up the rectum, as is mentioned by 

 Mr. Adair; and was used by Dettaen in experiments on dogs, who 

 found the valve of the colon did not prevent warm water being 

 pushed along the whole course of the alimentary canal by a 

 forcing syringe. This is well worthy trial, as well as the quick- 

 silver introduced by the anus in inflammations of the intestines, 

 where no passage downwards can be procured. 



Where an introsuspection of the intestine exists, as is believed 

 frequently to occur in those inflammations of the bowels of 

 children, which are not owing to some indigestible material, as 

 to plum stones or cherry stones, it is probable that a quantity of 

 air alone, or of the smoke of tobacco, might be injected so forci- 

 bly as to dilate, and in consequence to pass the valve of the colon; 

 and might push into its place the strangulated duplicature of the 

 intestine. Air might be thus injected from a large blown bladder 

 by means of a clyster-pipe covered with soft leather moistened 

 with oil or mucilage, or by means of bellows, or the common ap- 

 paratus for injecting the smoke of tobacco, or by a syringe used 

 for condensing air in philosophical experiments. I have seen 

 school-boys blow air through a grass-stem into the bowels of 

 frogs, so as to prevent their diving, without injuring them. 



Where the disease is owing to strangulated hernia, the part 

 should be sprinkled with cold water, or iced water, or salt and 

 water recently mixed, or moistened with ether. In cases of 

 strangulated hernia, could a cupuncture, or puncture with a ca- 

 pillary trocar, be used with safety and advantage to give exit to 

 air contained in the strangulated bowel? Or to stimulate it in- 

 to action? It is not uncommon for bashful men to conceal 

 their being afflicted with a small hernia, which is the cause of 

 their death; this circumstance should therefore always be in- 

 quired into. Is the seat or cause of the ileus always below the 

 valve of the colon, and that of the cholera above it? See Class 

 II. 1. 2. 11. 



1 . Globus hystericus. Hysteric suffocation is the perception 

 of a globe rolling round in the abdomen, and ascending to the 

 stomach and throat, and there inducing strangulation. It con- 



