Enemas Cold Water
Sources:
Papers On Health
Prejudice often exists against cold treatment of
any kind, but it must be overcome, unless the sick would lose some of
the most precious means of relief which we possess. The Enema Syringe,
or Fountain Enema, may be had from any druggist, and is used to inject
liquid into the lower bowel. To inject cold water by this means is a
most efficient method of relief for internal heat and irritation, as
well as for DIARRHOEA (
ee). Sick headaches are also often instantly
cured by this means. What we are here concerned with, however, is to
say that this remedy is as safe as it is simple, so long as
discomfort is not felt by the patient. Cold enemas may be given
repeatedly, where they are felt to be comforting, without any danger
whatever. If the bowels move after the first application, there is no
need to be alarmed. Repeat the cold injection, and the diarrhoea will
cease. The cold enema does not produce or aggravate constipation; on
the contrary, it often relieves and cures the sluggish bowels. In cases
where medicine has to be almost constantly taken, its use, and the
disuse of the drugs, will often effect a complete cure. In many
instances in which outward cooling cannot be borne, the thermometer
will indicate that there is excessive internal heat, and the pulse will
be quick also. In such cases it will be possible to give the most
delightful relief by cautiously applied internal cold.
Fever that might be relieved by cold packing and sponging with vinegar,
or some such means, will be far more speedily reduced by these cold
injections, and fever which cannot be reduced by these means alone will
give way when this is added.
There are cases in which a sort of paralysis of the lower bowel renders
what is called "opening medicine" constantly necessary. The consequence
of these continued doses is to produce greater and greater paralysis,
and ultimately death itself; in these cases the cold enema is of great
value. If there is lack of power in the bowel, it is well to increase
it by a warm bran poultice, or hot bag on the back, and to brace the
vessels and muscles within with the cold enema. (See Constipation.)