"The undue retention of the excrementitious matter allows of the absorption of its more liquid parts, which is a source of great impurity to the blood; and the excretions, thus rendered hard and knotty, act more or less as extraneous substances, and by their irritation induce a determination of blood to the intestines and to the neighboring viscera, which ultimately ends in inflammation and organic change of the bowels.
"It has also a great effect on the whole system; it causes a determination of blood to the head, which oppresses the brain and dejects the mind; it deranges the functions of the stomach, causes flatulency, and produces a general state of discomfort.
"In civilized life, then, the causes which are most generally and continually operating in the production of disorder and of disease are, affections of the mind, improper diet, and retention of intestinal excretions."
Dr. J. G. Gunn, in his interesting medical work, entitled "Gunn's Domestic Medicine," published in 1850, for the benefit of the people, speaking of injections as a domestic remedy, says:
"Language almost fails to express the great value of this innocent and powerful remedy in very many of the diseases to which mankind are daily and even hourly subject; and I most seriously regret to say that it is a remedy not only too little known but too seldom used, both by physicians and in families. This disregard for the great virtues of injections must either arise from the supposition that the operation is too troublesome, or from a false and foolish delicacy, which forbids the use of an instrument by which the lives of thousands have been preserved in extremely critical circumstances, and with which every mistress of a family should be perfectly acquainted, so as to be able to use when required in sickness. And I do here most positively assert, and that, too, from my own experience, that hundreds to whom I have been called in cases of cholic must have died had it not been for the immediate relief given by injections. I will mention one strong instance to prove the correctness of my assertion. While practising in the State of Virginia, I was called on, at midnight, to attend a stranger, who had arrived but a few moments before in the mail stage. This gentleman was one of the judges of the supreme court in the State of New York. He stated to me that the cholic had been coming on him for a considerable time before the stage stopped. By the time I arrived his misery was so extreme that he repeatedly exclaimed, "I must die unless immediate relief is given me." After administering all the remedies which are usually given in such cases, without any relief, I commenced administering injections of water, pleasantly warm. On the first being thrown up the bowels he experienced more relief than had been produced by all the other remedies I had tried. He felt an immediate exemption from pain, and after two or three more had been given, a copious discharge by the stool followed, and he was entirely restored.