Injections should be used as in former cases. If none of these methods are applicable, the wife may make use of a fine _sponge_. This sponge ought to be as large as an infant’s fist, and be rather too large than too small, so as to block up the vagina.
A thin ribbon is attached to the sponge, in order to withdraw it easily. The sponge must be renewed after a time, as it loses its elasticity with use. It should, before it is introduced, be moistened with the same solution as the fluid injection, and then pushed up so that the womb is well covered. Injections should be used with the sponge before it is introduced and immediately after connection, before and after removing the sponge. It is not as certain a preventive as the pessaries.
Yet this sponge is preferable to certain plans spoken of in the newspapers, and which cost a good deal, such as _soluble pessaries_, containing quinine or some acid substance. These are pushed up five or ten minutes before connection, and as near as possible to the mouth of the womb, with the hope that they may melt at the right moment and at the right place to destroy the vitality of the male fluid.
The _Atokos_ or other syringes with powder. They contain an acid powder which is blown up into the vagina. If either of these methods be used, energetic injections should be taken immediately after connection.
_Injections_, made immediately after connection, even with the most splendid syringes, are not of themselves sufficient; they always can come too late.
Dr. HINZ has invented a small syringe with an indiarubber ball at each end of a tube, recommended by Dr. FISCHER-DUCKELMANN, to inject a spermicide liquid, which is warmed, at the moment of the emission. This syringe is called _Facilitas_, but it is neither easy nor secure.
With these syringes the liquids mentioned in the following chapter may also be used.
For the success of any of these methods, it is indispensable that the wife should be acquainted with the position of the mouth of the womb.
Injections are an essential point of the sexual hygiene of the wife; but they are not sufficient alone: they complete the other preventive methods.
As injection, any acid solution may be used; for instance, _vinegar_ with equal parts of water, or a solution of 1 per cent. of citric or tartaric acid, etc. Any astringent solution, which is also useful in the case of white discharges: _sulphate of zinc_ or _alum_, of either 1 per cent. (a dessertspoonful of the powder in a litre or in a large bottle of water). Or _corrosive sublimate_ (perchloride of mercury), a decigramme dissolved in a large bottle of water.