THE ORIGIN AND USE OF THE ENEMA.
Pliny recorded the fact that "the use of clysters or enemata was first
taught by the stork, which may be observed to inject water into its
bowels by means of its long beak." The _British Medical Journal_,
reviewing the newly published _Storia della Farmacia_, says that
Frederigo Kernot describes in it the invention of the enema apparatus,
which he looks upon as an epoch in pharmacy as important as the
discovery of America in the history of human civilization. The glory of
the invention of this instrument, so beneficial to suffering mankind,
belongs to an Italian, Gatenaria, whose name ought to find a modest
place together with Columbus, Galileo, Gioja and other eminent and
illustrious Italians. He was a compatriot of Columbus and professor at
Pavia, where he died in 1496, after having spent several years in
perfecting his instrument. The enema apparatus may be justly named the
queen of the world, as it has reigned without a rival for three hundred
years over the whole continent, besides Brazil and America. The enema
came into use soon after the invention of the apparatus itself.
Bouvard, physician to Louis XIII, applied two hundred and twenty
enemata to this monarch in the course of six months. In the first years
of Louis XIV it became the fashion of the day. Ladies took three or
four a day to keep a fresh complexion, and the dandies used as many for
a white skin. Enemata were perfumed with orange, angelica, bergamot and
roses, and Mr. Kernot exclaims enthusiastically, "_O se tornasse questa
moda!_" (Oh, that this fashion would return!). The medical profession
at first hailed the invention with delight, but soon found the
application _infra dig._, and handed it over to the pharmacist; but
shameful invectives, sarcasms and epigrams, hurled at those who
exercised the humble duty of applying the apparatus, made them at last
resign it to barbers and hospital attendants. (_Year Book of
Therapeutics_, Wood, 1872.)
"The history of the warm bath," says Dr. Paris, "presents another
curious instance of the vicissitudes to which the reputation of our
valuable resources is so universally exposed. That which for so
many ages was esteemed the greatest luxury in health, and the most
efficacious remedy in disease, fell into total disrepute in the
reign of Augustus, for no other reason than because Antonius Musa
had cured the Emperor of a dangerous malady by the use of the cold
bath. The most frigid water that could be procured was in
consequence recommended on every occasion.... This practice,
however, was doomed but to an ephemeral popularity, for, although
it restored the Emperor to health, it shortly afterward killed his
nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, an event which at once deprived
the remedy of its credit and the physician of his popularity.
"That the _warm_ and not the _cold_ bath was esteemed by the
ancient Greeks for its invigorating properties may be inferred from
a dialogue of Aristophanes, in which one of the characters says, 'I
think none of the sons of the gods ever exceeded Hercules in bodily
and mental force.' Upon which the other asks, 'Where didst thou
ever see a cold bath dedicated to Hercules?'
"Thus there exists a fashion in medicine, as in the other affairs
of life, regulated by the caprice and supported by the authority of
a few leading practitioners, which has been frequently the occasion
of dismissing from practice valuable medicines and of substituting
others less certain in their effects and more questionable in their
nature. As years and fashion revolve, so have these neglected
remedies, each in its turn, risen again into favor and notice,
whilst old receipts, like old almanacs, are abandoned until the
period may arrive that will once more adjust them to the spirit and
fashion of the times." (J. A. Paris, _Pharmacologia_, p. 31, New
York, 1825.)
"A story told of Voltaire," says Dr. Arthur Leared, "well
illustrates both the evil effects of constipation and the advantage
of using the enema. The great philosopher was one day so miserable
and dejected that he told a friend he had resolved to hang himself.
His friend called the next morning to ascertain whether the resolve
had been or was intended to be carried out. But Voltaire only
replied, with a smile, 'I have been well washed out this morning.'"
(Op. cit., p. 200.)
For those suffering from chronic intestinal uncleanliness or
constipation, an occasional intestinal wash-out, or bath, is quite as
satisfactory as an "occasional" external bath or the "occasional" use
of a cathartic medicine. If there is a necessity for cleansing and
purifying the bowels at all, why not do it properly and systematically
until the condition that made the artificial cleansing necessary is
removed? Who would tolerate the cleaning of dining-room, kitchen, dairy
and other utensils in domestic use only when they became so foul that
they could not be endured any longer without great annoyance? Away with
the "occasional" cleansing habit for either external or internal bodily
cleanliness! There are persistent causes for internal uncleanliness,
for the tardy action of the bowels, which require regular periods for
cleansing until cure is effected.
It is estimated that food taken into the stomach will reach the colon
in five hours. For nineteen hours the sewage waste of the body is
gradually becoming a fetid pool before an outlet is furnished it by the
one-movement-a-day people; and O ye gods of health! how many of us
there are that haven't even one movement a day! For a few hours the
absorbent cells of the colon will try to extract as much of the
nutritious residue as the system calls for, but along with it a lot of
poisonous filth will be absorbed. The call of the system for
nourishment should be fully answered by the small intestines. Savages
have four or five movements a day, and we certainly should not have
less than three. People of refined sentiments will, at such a
disclosure, bestir themselves to better things.
Water, when properly applied, is the only remedy that meets the
physiological and pathological requirements of the chronically
constipated. By its use the diseased, spasmodically contracted muscular
tube is simply dilated, and the imprisoned feces and gases above are
permitted to pass down and through the temporarily occluded section of
the diseased bowels, the patient will have the consciousness of neatly
accomplishing an imperative requirement, and the satisfaction which
cleanliness entails.