small
space, and readily transported from place to place. Much depends on
knowing how to apply them. The patient should be seated on the edge of a
low chair or stool with a hard seat, immediately over a basin. The tube
should then be introduced as far as possible without causing pain, and
the liquid should be thrown up for five or ten minutes. About one or two
quarts may be used of a temperature, in ordinary cases, a little lower
than that of the apartment. Water actually cold is by no means to be
recommended, in spite of what some physicians say to the contrary. It
unquestionably occasionally leads to those very evils which the
judicious use of the syringe is intended to avoid.

No fluid but water should be used in ordinary cases. When, however,
there is much discharge, a pinch of powdered alum can be dissolved in
the water; and when there is an unpleasant odor present, a sufficient
amount of solution of permanganate of potash may be added to the water,
to change it to a light pink color. This latter substance is most
admirable in removing all unpleasant odors; but it will stain the
clothing, and must on that account be employed with caution.

We will add a few warnings to what we have just said about injections.
There are times when they should be omitted,--as for instance during the
periodical illness, when the body is either chilled or heated, and
generally when their administration gives pain. There are also some
women in whom the mouth of the womb remains open, especially those who
have borne many children. In such cases, the liquid used is liable to be
thrown into the womb itself, and may give rise to serious troubles.
These should either omit the use of the syringe altogether, or obtain
one of those which throw the water backward and not forward. This
variety is manufactured and sold by various dealers.

_Irrigations_ are more convenient in some respects than injections. They
are administered in the following manner:--A jar holding about a gallon
of water, simple or medicated, as may be advisable, is placed upon a
table or high stand. A long india-rubber tube is attached to the bottom
of the jar, ending in a metallic tube, and furnished with a stopcock.
The patient seats herself on the edge of a chair over a basin,
introduces the tube, and turns the stopcock. The liquid is thus thrown
up in a gentle, equable stream, without any exertion on her part. No
assistant is required, and the force and amount of the liq