Fistula, haemorrhoids, painful ulcer, stricture, prolapsus, and other diseases of the rectum : their diagnosis and treatment / by William Allingham.

  • Allingham, William.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fistula, haemorrhoids, painful ulcer, stricture, prolapsus, and other diseases of the rectum : their diagnosis and treatment / by William Allingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    When the pain seems quite confined to the sphincter mus- cle there was always spasmodic contraction, and I believe forcible dilatation of the anus, performed as I have before described, to be the best treatment; after this is done a hypodermic injection of morphia will often cure this affec- tion, which I used to consider a very intractable form of myalgia. There are other nervous diseases of the rectum described by authors, but they are very rare indeed ; one of them, which is called irritable rectum, I think is really the result of a chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane, as in such cases I have observed much heat in the bowel and tenesmus, as well as a discharge of mucus. These cases are best treated by very gentle laxatives, to keep the bowels acting, by alkalies with bitter infusions, and by insufflation of bismuth and charcoal into the rectum. This treatment will soon allay the irritability, and after this is accomplished the cure will be rendered permanent by injections of rha- tany and starch, with small doses of the liquid extract of opium. REMOVAL OF COCCYX. I have seen many female patients suffering from what has been considered neuralgic pain in the rectum, but really the pain was most distinctly referable to the sacro-coccygeal joint. These are most intractable cases, and on four occa- sions I have removed the coccyx, in the hope of curing the disease which was wearing out the mind and body of the patients. ]My first case was a married woman, aet. 54, with seven children. She had for years been complaining of pain in the rectum and at the end of the spine, which rendered her quite incapable of performing her household duties. She could not sit down except on a ring-shaped air-cussion, and when from home she always wore under her dress a couple of pads to catch the buttocks, so that the end of the spine should not touch anything. If the bowels were confined she had great pain before and at the time of their acting rather than afterwards. If she stooped, and suddenly raised herself, the pain was like a knife going through the very bottom of the back. She could walk but a short distance, and going up stairs, was a very painful exertion to her. On examining the rectum no fissure or ulcer was discover-
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