BY
W. P. Agnew, M. D.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
R. R. Patterson, Printer, 429 Montgomery Street,
1890.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by
W. P. Agnew, M.D., in the office of the Librarian of Congress at
Washington.
In preparing this hand-book, the object will be to givein plain and comprehensive language, as briefly as possibleand with little discussion, a few general rules, which ifeven approximately observed, can but lead to success in thetreatment of all non-malignant rectal diseases commonlyknown, and for which the general practitioner will not infrequentlybe called upon for relief.
Hemorrhoids, being by far the most common among thisclass of ailments, and the greatest bone of contention regardingthe best manner of effecting a radical cure, will takeprecedence in our consideration, and receive the attentionthat their importance and dignity justly merits.
It is an indisputable fact that until within the past fewyears, an operation for the radical cure of hemorrhoids wasconsidered so formidable an undertaking, that their treatment,outside of palliative measures, was almost entirelyeschewed by the general practitioner.
“No fact is better known to the profession,” says Dr. S.S. Turner, U. S. Army, “than that nearly all men, doctorsnot excepted, will suffer more than the pain and inconvenienceof a thousand operations, rather than undergo an operationfor removal by any of the methods in vogue. The fameof some specialists who are distant enough to ‘lend enchantmentto the view,’ will generally induce people of large means[4]when life has become something of a burden, to place themselvesunder their care and take what they offer.”
“But unfortunately, piles are by no means limited topeople of large means. The greater number of sufferersmust take what the general practitioner can give and willnot take the cutting and crushing operations until compelledby dire necessity, and are only too glad of a less heroic alternativewhich offers them hope of relief. For this body ofsufferers, the operation by carbolic acid injection offers ameans of relief to which they will readily submit. In a sufficientnumber and variety of cases to justify me in havingan opinion upon the question of its merits, I have never metwith anything which I have regretted.”
With these stubborn and uncompromising facts confrontingus on the one hand, and a full appreciation of the superiority,the simplicity, the safety and certainty of the operationby carbolic acid injection on the other, the writer has no alternativeother than to espouse, and proclaim his honest convictionand hearty support in favor of the latter method ofcure; and essays to point out in this little publication, in aplain, comprehensive and a practical way, what has been acquiredby personal observations and experiences, and all inall, believed to be the best manner of applying this trulyscientific and greatly superior method. A method, the discoveryof which, I feel prepared to say, marks an epochin the history of medicine, unrivaled in advancement by thetreatment of any other disease or class of diseases to whichthe human fam