Treatment of hemorrhoids, and other non-malignant rectal diseases

BY W. P. Agnew, M. D.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. R. R. Patterson, Printer, 429 Montgomery Street, 1890.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by W. P. Agnew, M.D., in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


In preparing this hand-book, the object will be to give in plain and comprehensive language, as briefly as possible and with little discussion, a few general rules, which if even approximately observed, can but lead to success in the treatment of all non-malignant rectal diseases commonly known, and for which the general practitioner will not infrequently be called upon for relief.
Hemorrhoids, being by far the most common among this class of ailments, and the greatest bone of contention regarding the best manner of effecting a radical cure, will take precedence in our consideration, and receive the attention that their importance and dignity justly merits.
It is an indisputable fact that until within the past few years, an operation for the radical cure of hemorrhoids was considered so formidable an undertaking, that their treatment, outside of palliative measures, was almost entirely eschewed by the general practitioner.
“No fact is better known to the profession,” says Dr. S. S. Turner, U. S. Army, “than that nearly all men, doctors not excepted, will suffer more than the pain and inconvenience of a thousand operations, rather than undergo an operation for removal by any of the methods in vogue. The fame of some specialists who are distant enough to ‘lend enchantment to the view,’ will generally induce people of large means when life has become something of a burden, to place themselves under their care and take what they offer.”
“But unfortunately, piles are by no means limited to people of large means. The greater number of sufferers must take what the general practitioner can give and will not take the cutting and crushing operations until compelled by dire necessity, and are only too glad of a less heroic alternative which offers them hope of relief. For this body of sufferers, the operation by carbolic acid injection offers a means of relief to which they will readily submit. In a sufficient number and variety of cases to justify me in having an opinion upon the question of its merits, I have never met with anything which I have regretted.”