// REACHING THE CECUM
A Look Back
TOBACCO ENEMA Robert E. Kravetz, MD, MACG Scottsdale, AZ
The enema, or clyster, has played a major role in promoting health throughout the history of civilization. It has been recommended for its restorative as well as its healing qualities. The many forms that it has taken have depended upon the prevailing social attitudes and customs that were present at various times in history.
58 // ACG MAGAZINE
One of the most unusual devises in the “annals of enematology” has been the tobacco enema, similar to the one illustrated here. This bellows-operated tobacco enema is made of wood, leather, brass and ivory. Four bottles contained cordial mixture, spirits of hartshorn, camphorated spirits, and emetic tartar. It is fitted in a mahogany case lined with green baize, circa 1790. These medications were prescribed orally in conjunction with the administration of the enema (device supplied courtesy of Fleet Pharmaceuticals).
Tobacco fumes were proposed as a laxative in 1643. This bellowsoperated tobacco enema is the type recommended by the Royal Humane Society of London in 1774. “It is not only the admission of kindly warmth into the internal parts of the body, which proves advantageous, but it is a stimulus to excite irritability and to restore the languid peristaltic motion of the intestines.” This archival reflection originally appeared in The American Journal of Gastroenterology in 2002.
Vol. 1, No. 1
