"Abandon the search for truth; settle for a good fantasy."

  

 

It was more likely a household had an enema kit in the medical cabinet than not in the nineteenth century.  They were used to treat any number of things, from constipation to acne to reviving a drowning victim.

One of the most common enemas used at the turn of the century was the tobacco smoke enema.  This procedure was promoted by The Institution for Affording Immediate Relief to Persons Apparently Dead From Drowning in London (later the Royal Humane society).  Kits were readily available (pic) and the smoke blown up the rectum was thought to warm the victim and stimulate breathing.  Artificial respiration was only used if the enema failed.  Eventually it was shown to be toxic to the heart, but not before tobacco wmoke enemas were used to treat headaches, respiratory failure, colds, hernias, abdominal cramps, typhoid fever and cholera. ¹

Another medical use for enemas during the nineteenth century was the treatment of acne.  It was believed that food rotted in the colon and released toxins that became visible through acne.  Therefore irrigating the colon removed the rotten food and cleared the skin.²
The following is a list from an article by Doyle “Per rectum: a history of enemata” published in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 01/2006; 35(4):367-70

 
Commonly used North American enemas of the late nineteenth century.

• Aloes enema for round worms. (Aloes, potassium carbonate and starch.)

• Compound aloes enema, also for round worms, constipation and amenorrhoea.

• Cathartic enema for refractory constipation and diarrhoea! (Castor oil, molasses and olive oil.)

• Compound lobelia enema for muscle spasm and tetanus. (magnesium sulphate, starch and olive oil.)

• Opium enema for inflammation of the bladder, uterus or prostate, calculi, nephritis, dysentery and painful conditions of the large bowel. (Tincture of opium, starch and infusion of elm bark.)

• Tobacco enema for strangulated hernia, ileus, faecal accumulations and other bowel obstructions, as well as tetanus. (An infusion of 20 grains of tobacco leaf in eight ounces of boiling water.)

• Turpentine enema for tympanic distension of the intestines when confined to the colon, and also for hysteria and amenorrhoea. (Turpentine and starch.)

• Compound turpentine enema for flatulence, colonic distension especially during peritonitis as well as for round worms, obstinate constipations and amenorrhoea. (Castor oil, turpentine and tincture of opium.)

The 1899 Merck manual lists over 30 conditions that may be treated by enema, including coma, worms, post-partum hemmorhage, jaundice and insomnia as well as the more obvious diahrrea, constipation and hemrhoids. 

One of the more common compounds to be used in enemas was turpentine.  It was recommended to treat catalepsy, coma, hydroencephalus, hysteria, flatulence and amennorhea. Many sedatives and narcotics were also administered via the rectum, such as opium, chloral hydrate, as well as the now-known poisons lead acetate and creosote.  Even digitalis was recommended to be administered by enema in certain cases.

Over the years, enemas have fallen out of favour with the medical community as safer and more effective drugs and procedures have been developed but are still used, especially in naturopathic and kink practices.

 

 

¹ “Tobacco smoke enemas” Issue: BCMJ, Vol. 54, No. 10, December 2012, page(s) 496-497 News & Notes by Sterling Haynes, MD

 ²http://www.facingacne.com/enema-cure-acne/

His name is MacGyver. He can fix anything. He could fix a computer with a hairpin and a piece of duct tape. - Pete Thornton

A paperclip can be a wondrous thing. More times than I can remember, one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot. - MacGyver

Recs for MacGyverisms from first season episodes for the pervertible square on my kink bingo card


Pilot epsiode


Mac uses chocolate bars to stop an acid leak. "To you they're milk chocolate. To sulphuric acid, it's lactose and sucrose, C12H22O11, disaccharides. The acid will react with the sugar to form an elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue."
He also uses a paper clip to disarm a missile.

Barbara: "Don't tell me you know how to make a bomb out of a stick of chewing gum"

Mac: "Why, have you got some?"


Golden Triangle

MacGyver creates an irritating smoke screen with a bamboo pipe, ash, alcohol and a car’s exhaust.



Thief of Budapest

MacGyver uses salt combined with sugar and weed killer to create dynamite with a battery acid trigger.


Trumbo's World

MacGyver makes an arc welder out of a generator, some jumper cables, and two coins. He also uses fertilizer, plant bark and a drip or two of acid to make nitromannite to make a bomb.



Hellfire

MacGyver uses the spring from a ballpoint pen as a replacement for a throttle linkage spring in a truck's engine.

He fixes a blown fuse by joining the two contacts with a foil gum wrapper.



The Gauntlet

Duct tape seals a bullet hole in hot air balloon and makes a periscope using bus mirrors.




The Prodigal

Mac used cleaning fluid, mothballs, a telescope, pulley, rope and metal rod to make a harpoon launcher.




Target MacGyver

MacGyver pinecones and pine pitch as grenades.




Nightmare

Mac uses a gum wrapper as fishing lure




Deathlock

Mac creates a motor out of a battery pack, some rubber bands and an electric whisk.




The enemy within

Mac uses two metal candleholders, a floor mat, and a power cord to make a defibrillator.




Ugly Duckling

MacGyver uses a cactus as a makeshift battery to power a radio.




Slow Death

MacGyver makes a lie detector out of a sphygmomanometer, a wire and an alarm clock.




Prisoner of Conscience

“…caulking compound mixed with the proper hardening agent makes a unique version of Russian Crazy Glue." - MacGyver

TEN RECS


Faust (book) by Goethe http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14591

The Devil Went Down To Georgia (song) by The Charlie Daniels Band http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnepPZChA5U

The Devil and Daniel Webster (movie 1941) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFbOaVPSpwQ

The Devil’s Bridge, Rheidol, Wales (legend)

( poem by Sabine Baring-Gould )

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (book)  by  Christopher Marlowe http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/779

Mefistofele (opera) by Arrigo Boito  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyGJyXfgFw 
 
The Devil and Daniel Mouse (animated movie 1981) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHZTC1ljA84

The Muppet Show s03ep07  with Alice Cooper (television)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HBOPRNM-dQ

The Simpsons episode 132  'Bart Sells His Soul' (televsion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6B5vQpvEFk

Needful Things (book) by  Stephen King

1. Chocolat

2. Fried Green Tomatoes

3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory  1971 /Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005

5. Ratatouille

6. Lady and the Tramp - Who could forget the classic spaghetti scene ending with an unexpected kiss?

7. When Harry Met Sally – The way Sally orders in the restaurant.

8. Animal House – Food FIght!

9. Big – I love the party scene when Tom Hanks eats the mini corn and tries the caviar.

10. 9 ½ Weeks – Mickey Rourke feeding a blindfolded Kim Basinger

11. Soylent Green – Soylent green is... 

( major spoiler! )

 

 

photographs of my favourite standing stones and henges - Stonehenge, Avebury, Mayburgh, Long Meg and her daughters, The King Stone and the Whispering Knights, Rollright Stones and Castlerigg, set to the Mass For The Feast Of St. Thomas Of Canterbury - 1. Introit, "Gaudeamus Omnes" by the Canterbury Cathedral Lay Clerks