PURGATIVES AND CLYSTERS IN SPASMODIC COLIC. 67 
the matters accumulated in the intestine are a powerful 
cause of inflammation. Now the best means of extinguish- 
ing, or of preventing, the inflammation, is to expel the 
faeces. 5 Further on, my son quotes Mr. Lawrence, who, 
in his treatise on Hernia, says, referring to purgatives after 
herniotomy, “ remembering that the intestines frequently 
contain a large collection of faecal matter, and of morbid se- 
cretions, which can only be got rid of by several copious 
motions, and that the operation of purgatives must be salu- 
tary, not merely by removing this noxious accumulation, but 
by exciting a discharge of fluids calculated to lessen inflam- 
matory action. The notion that purgatives are capable of 
exciting the mucous membrane of the alimentary passages, 
and thus of producing or aggravating inflammations of the 
stomach or bowels, and the prohibition of their employment 
on this account, both after the operation for strangulated 
hernia, and in many other cases, is, in my opinion, entirely 
groundless ; and the practical precepts founded upon this 
theoretical and imaginary foundation, have always appeared 
to me a signal triumph of doctrine over the most unequivocal 
results of experience, and the plainest dictates of common 
sense. ”f 
The administration of aloes in efficient doses, in cases of 
colic, has long been in use, to my knowledge, in Naples ; 
and when, in 1826, 1 was there, I found that as much as two 
ounces of Socotrine Aloes, made into an electuary with 
syrup, were prescribed for a dose, given by smearing the mix- 
ture on the horse’s tongue, and washing it down with warm 
chamomile decoction. The electuary was thus in part swal- 
lowed and in part lost. Clysters formed a constant, and 
were considered a very necessary, auxiliary in the treatment. 
Tutored in the practices of the London school, I was then 
surprised to hear of the amount of success, especially as no 
cases of superpurgation from the large doses of aloes pre- 
scribed were ever spoken of; from which I concluded that, 
by the mode of administering the aloes, only an indefinite 
amount was actually swallowed. But a short time elapsed 
before I scrutinisingly tested the practice, and became con- 
firmed in its superiority. Aloes and clysters have ever since 
been the only expedients I have resorted to, and I am tho- 
roughly convinced that veterinary surgeons called on to attend 
patients labouring under spasms, would do better, be far 
* ‘ Nouveaux Elemens de Medecine Operatoire,’ tom. ii, p. 299. (See 
my son’s Pamphlet, p. 35.) 
f ‘ Treatise on Rupture,’ 5th edit. p. 322. 
