Medical text recommending enemas

Hi all,

Over the past year or so I've spent a lot of time looking through old books that have been digitised from library collections on various websites. Many of them have been old medical books, some manuals on nursing and midwifery, but also a couple of books like The Household Doctor. What has intrigued me... particularly about the latter, is that though they were published between about 1890 and 1950, I can't find anything that specifically recommends the routine/regular use of enemas as described in so many remembrances.

Certainly many contain instructions for giving enemas, but utend only to be recommended for certain situations, and the intimation always seems to be that they should be given only when ordered by a doctor. So... can anyone point me to digital copies of books from this period which do specifically recommend giving enemas regularly, or at least as a general cure-all?

Another thing that has surprised me a little is that, despite many accounts of their use, I've found little recommending the use of more exotic devices like colon tubes. Indeed a book I have on colonic irrigation from 1932 seems to actually discourage it. On the other hand, it details a bewildering array of awful-sounding solutions for potential use, including several acids!

Even if you can only quote the text, if you can cite title, author and date that would be useful to me. Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

Regards

Daniel

Back in the 1950s and 1960s almost every women's magazine had something on giving enemas to children.

Many health books of the era also had a paragraph or two about GIVING an enema.

What no one ever talked about was taking an enema yourself.

It just went unsaid!

Apparently the whole “Mommy is supposed to nurse the sick but never get sick herself” pre-conception.

One element of the American Dream that I am glad we woke up from!

I remember as a young girl becoming aware enemas gave me good feelings beyond just a cure for constipation, I started reading about them whenever I could. We had a rather large book at home, the title something like The Home Health Manual that had all kinds of first aid advice for the family. I read and re-read the page or two devoted to enemas until I had it memorized. How to give one, and what to put in it for different reasons. I remember one cure for worms that maybe had turpentine in the enema? I was not interested in any of that stuff as I only used plain water at the time. When I got to high school I had access to more detailed medical information such as a Nursing Manual but I had to be careful who was watching me read it. One time I was standing between the bookshelves checking out what that book had on enemas, a friend (boy) saw the heading “Enemas” at the top of the page and asked if I was constipated, or what? I quickly closed the book and put it back on the shelf and walked away without answering. I didn't know just what to say. I was not going to admit I liked enemas.

It wasn't until later that the articles in books and magazines started saying that enemas were discouraged. When I had my own kids the advice on giving enemas to them was, “don't”. Completely opposite of what I experienced growing up. Now, after many years, it seems enemas are sort of fashionable with the rich and famous like Gwyneth Partlow and Katy Perry. Are we coming full circle?

Routine or regular enema use then was probably more of a home remedy tradition than any specific medical advice. The only reference to regular use I can recall was in an old medical article wherein the recounting physical mentions that before anything else an enema “as a matter of course” was given to the patient.

I can only speak for myself, but I was hospitalised in a UK hospital either side of 1960. I ended up with two minor operations which were performed one after the other, with about a two week gap between both of them. After each operation was that I could neither get up nor walk for about one week after each one, with the result that I became constipated each time. After about 7 days from the operation being performed, I was given an enema to get my system going; then after the second operation, I was given a suppository. From what I could see and hear going on in our ward, quite a few of my fellow inpatients were subjected to the same procedures. I think that keeping people's bowels regular was a concern to the Matron in charge of the ward, and I believe it was done automatically once a nurse became aware of a patient not using the bathroom for some time. I don't think that a reference book was checked beforehand, but that may have been part of their nurses education at training school here in the UK at that time.

@Daniel1984 What has intrigued me... particularly about the latter, is that though they were published between about 1890 and 1950, I can't find anything that specifically recommends the routine/regular use of enemas as described in so many remembrances.

Interesting what you discovered. Having been born in the mid-1940's and given enemas at an early age, my parents never had any medical or child care books. It all seemed to be word of mouth and what they learned from their parents or was told to them when a doctor made a house call.

ETA: I forgot to mention that in the big apt house where my mom lived there were a number of other mothers - and they all shared info… there was also a nurse living there whom they would turn to for advice..

It wasn't until later that the articles in books and magazines started saying that enemas were discouraged. When I had my own kids the advice on giving enemas to them was, “don't”. Completely opposite of what I experienced growing up. Now, after many years, it seems enemas are sort of fashionable with the rich and famous like Gwyneth Partlow and Katy Perry.

Are we coming full circle?

YES…very much yes not just with enemas….. Legalization of gambling, drugs, alcohol, and even enemas… This is why we are suppose to study history in school…. So, we don't make the same mistakes… Obviously there are a lot of people who failed these classics

In 1966, when I was 18, I had an appendicitis attack . I drove myself to the hospital in the middle of the night. They prepped me for surgery but did not give me an enema. I was in the hospital for a week and did not get an enema.

Not exactly medical but alternative medicine: Airola's Handbook of Natural Healing.

Read the sections on enemas many times growing up

Once again this community comes up trumps with a good healthy measure of kindness and helpfulness. Thank you all so much, and I apologize for not being able to respond to each of you... because I do need to eat and sleep heh!

What has been said about it being more informal advice, hinted at but not explicitly laid out, makes a lot of sense. I have a wonderful book from the 1900s called On The Trail, about camping for girls. And among all the instructions for what to wear, how to build a shelter, how to responsibly dispose of your rubbish, what to do if you get lost etc, there are numerous admonitions to 'keep the bowels open'. And it's not at all exclusive to this work... though you might think it the least likely place to find such advice. So it's clear that being regular was a common and perhaps even overriding preoccupation.

Sadly Trail recommends its girl campers to take laxitives I think. Still... perhaps some of the daughty young ladies packed their syringes/bottles too. Now there's a story idea.

Thank you to those who have recommended me books especially. Certainly in my 1945 nursing manual there are instructions for giving enemas. I think it might be there that it says only if ordered by a doctor. Mind it's perfectly possible that the invisible subtext was, "or Matron." She, after all, WAS God.

My mom had medical book by a Dr. Fishbein. I think it was originally published or updated during the 1940s and recommended in times of illness "to keep the bowels open with an enema."

She also had a vintage nursing manual that was tattered and well worn. I especially remember a paragraph talking about colds and flu and recommending giving "a warm soapy enema."

I'd love to see someone write a nursing manual today that brings back the enema as a family remedy for colds and flu-type illness. And as a woman with my own family living through this pandemic with times of stress, I know from experience that enema cleanses when my GI tract is rebelling do have some therapeutic value in making us feel better physically and mentally.

In the “Home Medical Guide” by Dr. Benjamin Miller, he covers the giving of an enema and has one of the best illustrations I've seen. In a section on “Nuisance Ailments”, he goes through the subject of constipation. After trying diet, exercise, and other typical ways to address it, he says “take an enema” if constipation causes discomfort. He describes the method and says if this doesn't work to try laxatives. He further says you may take an enema every few days.

I still have this book from those my mom and grandma relied on. The Red Cross Manual also covered enemas and it appears Dr. Miller was a contributor to that text. Dr. Eichenlaub, a “Minnesota Doctor”, also covered and advocated enemas extensively. These texts were prepared decades ago. Other items of interest were the newspaper columns from decades ago. They can be accessed in Google Books under the different sources. Some doctors were pro enema and others not so much. It is some interesting reading regarding enemas.

No literature but definitely an inference to enemas. When I was in the 5th grade, our class was going to a nature camp at a lake for a week. Giving final instructions on how to behave and safety reminders, our teacher, Mr. Batey, said above all - go to the bathroom when you need to and don't put it off. He said last year a boy didn't go like he should and his BOWELS got locked up. He then remarked, “He had to get a real good cleaning out one night”!!!

My imagination could picture it and I've never forgotten it. (The camp Nurses and no telling how many enemas it took.)

@Vicki V

Oooh now it would be good indeed to get a copy of that nursing manual, and I think you're right about colds and flu. I can see it being helpful even without what scientists might call a causal link. If administered by someone you felt comfortable with in that way too, the warmth of the solution and the relieved feeling you would get afterwards... and just the feeling of being ministered to as well. Someone definitely needs to write that manual.

@sse4fun

Thank you for these book ideas! That's interesting how the enema is recommended before lacsatives. Of course that does make sense logically... as I read somewhere, why disturbe the whole system when you only need to clear the lower portion of it? And definitely shouldn't surprise us at all that different doctors held different views. Nothing really changes does it?

@Moms Egirl

Aaah now there's another lovely story idea... and you've even got the title! The Camp Nurses.

There were a lot of “home care” medical manuals/books in the 1950's to early 1960's. Most households had atleast one and perhaps two enema bags. The only prohibition on giving a enema to either a child or adult (or yourself) was abdominal pain or with symptoms of appendicitis.Common sense limitations on the volume/amount/height of the enema bag would be clearly stated ---but were often disregarded by well meaning parents. The more negative view of (home) enemas in home medical books began in the early 1970's. Enema-- disappeared from the index completely or it was OK only if the Doctor approved it…some of the negativity on home enema use has eased up 50 years on-- but it's unlikely to return to a 1950's--60's scenario anytime soon…

Well, finally found a couple of books specifically recommending enemas for colds/flu... and pretty much everything else actually ha. Slight downside is they are both 'nature cure' books, the sort recommending subsisting mostly on raw fruits and vegetables and never drinking tea or coffee.

I've not yet found any of the books mentioned here at the archive website I go to looking for these things sadly, of course there are tens of reasons why that might be the case... including the possibility I'm not searching hard enough. ☺

Of course there's plenty of evidence enemas were ubiquitous during this period, enema bags are mentioned being in the drug store window in To Kill a Mocking Bird for example. Don't want anyone to think I'm under the impression this was all a big legend. I'm just somewhat surprised to find recommendations of their general use so illusive in books of the period. I do have a 1945 British nursing manual which gives instructions for them and recipes... but this book is about hospital nursing so has little bearing on home care.

Ah well, onwards and upwards, thank you all once again for your comments and ideas.