Enemas in Britain

I have often wondered if the widespread use of enemas was not largely an American thing. I've read a lot of books about life in the past in Britain, biographies or general books about various areas of life. I've seen plenty of references to illness, hospitals, operations and so-on, but never any to enemas. Now I appreciate it's not something you just start talking about out the blue, but I am surprised never to have come across it with reference to Britain... aside from some online enema stories that I'm not entirely sure aren't fiction dressed up as fact.

So I was wondering, does anyone here from Britain have memories of enemas, at home, at school, at the doctors... anywhere, during the 20s/70s? (OK I'm stretching things with the 20s haha.)

It is one of the last vestiges of British Culture still left in America!

The Angles were known to use them, before the Battle of Hastings

The MIDWIVES used them for a long time......haven't seen much reference in my explorations about using them. Interesting to go to each countries eBay site and search enema, which would show quantity of stuff being sold. May be a good number to compare country. Vs country!

@charlie_oneal I know there is apparently an enema scene in Call the Midwife. That's an interesting idea about ebay, never thought of that.

I remember quite vividly getting one from my father when I was about 8 yo on the living room floor. I do remember him saying that he got them as a child.

I have found myself in an English hospital in around the seventies, and several others in the ward were given enemas, on one occasion, it was a man in the next bed , who was obviously afraid of the coming event, as he had vanished and the nurse asked if id seen him, she said ...silly man, its only an enema !

Another time it was a man getting what appeared to be a huge enema, as i overheard two passing nurses saying....oh that poor man, thats such a big enema ! and i heard him pleading for it to stop, never found out why it was so much.

Seems hospitals here used to give enemas on arrival if an op was involved, unfortunately, i never got one.

I was given enemas growing up in the UK in the 50's and 60's by the woman who looked after me that I called Aunty but was actually my grandmothers sister. I found everything about them both embarrassing and also exciting particularly as I got older.

In the british TV series "Call the midwife" which is supposed to depict life in the London east/port quarters in the 1950s the standard procedure by the midwives as delivery prep is a very soapy enema performed with a white enameled enema can and a red rubber hose.

Thank you all for your replies. It does seem that the Higginson syringe was a favourite instrument in the UK from the few accounts I've been able to find, and the can. Very interesting about the hospital enemas.

Just my recollection, but I think the enema scene (discussion only,) came in the second season, eighth episode, of Call the Midwife, with a white metal enema can (like my mom's) referred to. A british-born friend commented once that the prospect of enemas was her main fear of an intestinal exam involved enema prep. She agreed that the cleanouts we grew up with as children were not as bad as remembered.

I do believe there was a difference in the use of enemas between the UK and America. It was likely driven by both geography and government.

In the UK, postwar, much of the healthcare system was government run. I believe much of the mundane care was delivered by District Nurses who visited patients and triaged them and administered routine care, like enemas.. From Wiki:

"District nurses are one of the many different types of nurses who manage care within the community, rather than in a hospital or private clinic. They visit patients in their homes and provide the necessary advice and care regarding wound management, continence care, catheter care and palliative care amongst others."

The countries are vastly different in size: the UK is about 93k and the US about 3.8M square miles. What can work in a compact country fails in an enormous one. The distances are just too big. In the US one can literally live 100 miles or more from the nearest doctor or health facility.

And it's very unlikely a parent would drive 3-4 hours, just because their kid can't poo. Very different than a District Nurse who is 15 minutes away by bicycle. Hence, there is a do-it-yourself tendency in American medicine. And any mom can fill a bag then their kid.

As to equipment, there is something of a puzzle. The biggest drug store chain was, and may still be, Boots Chemists. They have been around for 150-odd years and were pretty much the sole source suppliers before the web.

They sold several kinds of enema & douche apparatus:

There was the common enameled kit like this:

https://img.techpowerup.org/181202/NmM0NTI4YmYwMThm.jpg

And a glass version, like this

https://img.techpowerup.org/181202/ZTFmNzlmMGNhYzU4.jpg

(Aside: This style seems common in the UK, France, and Germany. I would love to know who/where they were made)

Even into the 1980s, rubber fountain or combo syringes were all but unknown. I've no idea why.

Another oddity is that small volume Glycerin Syringes were apparently common in the UK from maybe the 1920s on. These syringes delivered about 15 ml of glycerine well up into a person, forcing a poo within minutes. AFAIK they never became common in the US, before the introduction of the Fleet version.

Many thanks for that very informative reply Sean. I think I started a similar thread last year, but it doesn't matter at all. A lot of what you said makes perfect sense.

I still tend to think that enemas (& I have to generalise) were nowhere near as common in the UK as in the USA. I lived in a tight-knit working class community. Neighbours and families knew a lot about each other. Although we had the NHS in the 1950s/60s, there was reluctance to use it!! Rightly or wrongly, it was felt that people should not waste Doctors' (who were revered in the local community ) time with anything but really serious illnesses / ailments.

There were several local women (my own grandmother was one!!) who dealt with lots of medical problems, dispensed advice etc - even delivered babies. None of them had any medical qualifications whatsoever!!! Such women were common in some poorer neighbourhoods during the 1950s/60s.

My point is this: certainly in my locale, I never heard of any references to enemas. Never (& I found out a lot about people's ailments by dint of overhearing numerous conversations. For our childhood constipation - the treatment was always vile tasting Castor Oil, Syrup of Figs or some other ghastly preparation (whose name escapes me) which tasted like liquid chalk. Failing that...it was orally taken laxatives. I certainly never was given an enema, nor did I ever know anyone who received one, nor did I ever hear of anyone being given one.

This does not, of course, prove that enemas were not administered, but I just feel that the practice was not particularly widespread in the UK during the 1950s / 60s....but I am perfectly willing to be proved wrong.

@schoolmedsboi said

Many thanks for that very informative reply Sean. I think I started a similar thread last year, but it doesn't matter at all. A lot of what you said makes perfect sense.

I've looked through your posts, and I believe you are referring to this thread -

https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=forum;ox=display;topic=102699

The difference is that this thread discusses the UK specifically whereas the other thread discussed the USA vs the rest of the world.

Thank you DrZ

My grandmother (mother's side) immigrated to the US from the Midlands(Nottinghamshire) in 1921. She always had her hot water bottle (nicknamed Charlie) which also served for administering enemas. She was always judicious in giving them but certainly did so when she thought they were indicated. It was clear she had received them as a child as well.

I had the pleasure to visit Great Britain several times over the years. On my last trip in 2014 I had a day to myself and I decided I wanted to buy an enema syringe. I was in Stafford and visited three different pharmacies. In the first, I just looked around and found nothing. No bags, no Higginson type (which I had read was more common in the UK than in the US), not even a Fleet type disposable. In the next two I got up the nerve to ask a clerk who told me they don't carry them. I had to settle for some glycerin suppositories, which were different from the US type. They were amber, translucent, and somewhat flexible and worked very well but I was still disappointed.

Is that normal for the UK, or did I not go to the right places?

In hid interesting posting, Sean says there is "something of a puzzle over enema equipment that was available in the UK. He then lists the enameled enema can as "common" while the rubber bag was hard to find. This would seem to be the opposite of what was available in the US, at least during the Golden Age.

Absolutely typical. If they have anything, it's usually something like Micralax Mini-Enemas. They are roughly like the Enemeez available in the USA. Both are essentially liquid suppositories and force a poo in about 15 minutes. If your poo is hard, the results may well be pretty uncomfortable. The Enemeez can be bought with a local anesthetic, which should tell you something.

@Sean Thanks very much for a very interesting post.

@Schoolmedsboi Thanks very much for your reminicences. I came across the 'liquid chalk' preparation in a very interesting memoir from a girl who attended boarding school near London in the 1930s. Apparently it was called 'white mixture' at her school back then. She said they got it... I think it was every week or three times a week I'm not sure, and had all kinds of wrinkles to avoid swallowing it, like spitting it into their hot water bottles, because it made them go to the loo all the rest of that day otherwise.

Isn't it funny how posts lie dormant for a while and suddenly... fire up. It's been very interesting reading all this. It certainly seems they were rarer in the UK, at least for home use. Interesting about people being reluctant to use the NHS, I can understand that by what I know of the culture of the time.

I'm not at all surprised about not finding enema equipment in the UK, most people I know have never even heard of enemas.

@Daniel1984 . Thanks!! Glad that you found another reference to that 'chalky' preparation. It was horrible and disgusting. Never mind the effects at one end..,it made me feel like vomiting too. A vile preparation, whatever it was.,,.even Castor Oil (which was also ghastly to taste) was preferable!!

Knowing what I know now....maybe enemas would have been preferable....had I ever been obliged to have one (LOL)

"White Mixture" is apparently a powdered saline laxative. It is listed in the British National Formulary (the analogy to the US Pharmocopia):

"Mist Alba

White Mixture Of Magnesium Sulphate 100ml

Mist Alba White Mixture Of Magnesium Sulphate 100ml is made with a mixture of magnesium sulphate and magnesium carbonate to help bring relief from mild constipation."

The proportions are not listed. I doubt it's very different than Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulpfate) alone.

I don't doubt that it tastes pretty foul and may well have been given dissolved in warm or hot water to to enhance the laxative effect. Giving it hot likely enhances the foul taste too. If it is given on an empty stomach results usually start in about a half hour. A strong dose is likely to cause several watery poos, pretty much impossible to resist.

"White Mixture" - It appears White Mixture is this:

Mist Alba. White mixture of magnesium sulphate.

Each 5 ml contains:

Magnesium sulphate - 2g.Light

Magnesium carbonate - 0.25 g.

Sodium Bicatbonate

I think Delia posted several messages where she gave details on the use of the Higginson syringe in her family in the 1950s.

@Schoolmedsboi Well, I'm not certain that's what you're remembering, though the fact that you both say it was 'chalky' is strongly suggestive. As I say she said they got it routinely though I can't remember the time interval, and that on that day hands constantly shot up in class and no one needed to ask why. It was dispensed from large bottles into little paper cups I think she said. Of course since this was a boarding school they probably got it wholesale.

@Pecan_nutjob Longshot, but any idea where?

If it was a white and "chalky" liquid, it might also have been Milk of Magnesia. It seems odd that all of a class would get it at the same time, because all the class would have to poo urgently at about the same time thereafter. Saline laxative are fast acting.

The building code requirements are something like 1 toilet per 30-50 people, so even a class of 25 given laxatives would easily overwhelm available facilities. It might have happened once, but commonly.... I doubt it.

I can easily see the students all being dosed with something like Senna at bedtime. It takes 8 to 12 hours to act and causes much less urgency.

...have to poo urgently at about the same time thereafter. Saline laxative are fast acting.

...

I can easily see the students all being dosed with something like Senna at bedtime. It takes 8 to 12 hours to act and causes much less urgency.

In some, probably most people. I have very little luck with salines, even monster doses can take 8+ hours to work.

I find myself wondering how long senna will still be on the market. There have been studies linking it to cancer, but I haven't seen any specifics on if it was people who took triple doses every other day. I usually use bisacodyl suppositories when I choose a stimulant and am wondering if those will be found to be carcinogenic too.

@Daniel1984 & @Sean. Thanks for your replies. It most definitely wasn't Milk of Magnesia....far more vile. All I know is that it was something that I was forced to take in the 1950s. Knowing my mother / grandmother...it could have been some concoction left over from the 1940s!!!

Enemas are very uncommon here in Britain. I don't know of anybody here in Britain that has had one ! male or female old or young.

No wonder the Brits have a "Stiff Upper lip" Pip Pip, carry on