n of feces and water the stretched or
dilated sacs may keep their places in the rectum. And then again, the
enema may be used for quite a period, when all at once a large prolapse
of sacculated mucous membrane occurs, and the enema is thought to be
the cause of it. That this is not the cause, let it be remembered that
in all cases of proctitis the chronic inflammation is apt to become
subacute or acute, and that this intense engorgement and enlargement of
the tissue with blood and the increased fever in the parts often result
in prolapse at any time, especially at times of convulsive effort at
evacuation.

Whatever follows the proper use of an enema, even though what follows
be annoying, should not be blamed on the enema, for its action is most
kindly, lessening as it does the irritation that otherwise would be
more severe when the feces pass through a disease-constricted canal.

The _sixth_ objection is that the use of the enema will weaken the
bowels, which are already too "weak" to expel their contents. "Atony,
paralysis, fatty degeneration of the gut, are bad enough," say these
objectors, "without having an enema increase their uselessness."
Diagnosis wrong and objection groundless.

Distend and contract an organ for a short time two or three times a
day, and it will gain in strength from the exercise. Every one knows
that this is the case. What more gentle means of exercising the large
intestines than by the enema?

But the truth of the matter is that in all cases of proctitis and
constipation the diseased portion of the gut is too active in its
muscular movements, contracting spasmodically, as it does, at even the
suggestion or suspicion of feces near it. Every impulse of the bowels
above the constricted section to force the feces down through the
closed bore only intensifies the spasmodic action and increases the
muscular obstruction, compelling the victim to resort to some one of
the many drastic means of relief.

The enema does no more than kindly to dilate the constricted region,
which, when dilated, evokes a harmonious concerted action of all the
nerves and muscles to pass along and down the burden of feces, which,
without the aid of a flood of water, they had been incapable of moving,
and would have had to leave to poison the system.

The _seventh_ objection is quite naive: "Inasmuch as the Indians of
this country had no use for the enema, why should we resort to it?"

The all-sufficient answer to th