Hints to Travellers, Scientific and General, Vol. 2 / Tenth edition, revised and corrected

by Royal Geographical Society

Enemas.

Enema Syringe.—This is fitted with long and short tube. To use the long tube, slip it over the short one, which will hold it firmly. After use hang it up to drain, dry it well, but do not oil it; carry it loose rather than coiled up, so as to avoid risk of the rubber kinking at the flexed portions of the tube.

To give an enema, the patient should be placed on his left side, and brought close to the edge of the bed, with his knees slightly drawn up towards the belly. The pipe or nozzle of the syringe should be well oiled or smeared with vaseline, and then carefully introduced into the outlet of the bowel, and passed gently upwards for about three inches, great care being taken not to exert any force.

The higher up into the bowel a nutrient or medicinal injection is passed, the more rapidly will it be absorbed; therefore the long tube is to be preferred, and the hips should be raised on a pillow, to assist the patient in retaining the injection.

A nutrient or medicinal enema is usually small in quantity, about two to four ounces, in order to prevent its being rejected by the bowel, and is administered by means of a small ball syringe provided with a long nozzle.

Before giving a medicinal or nutrient enema, it is best to wash the lower bowel with warm water, and always see that the mixture to be injected is warmed to “blood heat.”

Poultices.

Linseed-meal poultice.—Mix four ounces of linseed meal into about half a pint of boiling water, constantly stirring until the mixture is smooth and even. A piece of tow, teased out to the required size, or a piece of linen or thin cloth, is placed upon a table, and the poultice turned out upon it; then spread evenly in a layer about three-quarters of an inch thick, leaving a margin of tow or linen about an inch wide all round. This margin should be folded over, and the poultice applied to the affected part—with the meal next the body.

An Ice poultice is made by mixing pounded ice and sawdust, and enclosing the mixture in a waterproof material such as a mackintosh or gutta-percha.