The diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the rectum : being a practical treatise on fistula, piles, fissure and painful ulcer, procidentia, polypus, stricture, cancer, etc / by William Allingham and Herbert W. Allingham.
- William Allingham
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the rectum : being a practical treatise on fistula, piles, fissure and painful ulcer, procidentia, polypus, stricture, cancer, etc / by William Allingham and Herbert W. Allingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![sphincters, as this is the most common position for openings of fistulse, ulcers, etc. These, however, may be passed by if the finger is at once inserted high up the bowel, as is so frequently done by the unskilled in these matters. The finger should now be passed higher, the prostate examined, and the upper parts of the rectum thoroughly explored. If a tumour can be felt, it can be indented by the finger ; scratch slightly with the nail, to detect what matter comes away in it, for impacted fseces may give rise to sym]3toms of cancer, and the fact of being able to indent the mass or remove a small portion of it with the finger may settle the diagnosis, and frequently prevent the surgeon from arriving at an erroneous conclusion—also it is well to observe whether the discharge upon the finger be blood, pus, or mucus. In examining a patient, we use the right forefinger for the front wall of the rectum, but prefer the fore- finger of the left hand for the posterior aspect of the gut. By so doing the pulp of the finger can with ease be swept over all the mucous surface. All this may be done without previously giving the patient an enema, but should, upon insertion of the fino-er, the rectum be found filled with faeces and the diagnosis obscured, an enema is imperative. By its use growths may be made to protrude, and the upper part of the bowel investigated. With Although personally we very seldom use a specu- specuium. .^^ diaguosis, yet in some cases it is a valuable aid if an anaesthetic has had to be administered. For a speculum to be of any service as a means of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20400512_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
