Within the last three decades the diagnosis and treatment of bowel troubles have been greatly changed through improved instruments, technique, hygienic measures, and various remedial agents.

The domain of surgery of the anus, rectum, etc., has been surprisingly limited, and that of gastro-intestinal hygiene enlarged, together with knowledge of man’s assimilative and eliminative organs. Systemic and local hygiene has supplanted drugs and surgery in the treatment of diseases of the anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, and vermiform appendix. Indeed, the domain of surgery will be restricted to what are still considered incurable diseases if the suggestions of this volume are widely adopted. From a clinical experience extending over a period of thirty-three years, however,—as a specialist in diseases of the anus, rectum, and intestinal machinery generally,—the author feels warranted in maintaining that, if hygio-therapic measures were taken by both physicians and laymen, surgical clinics and hospitals for “operating” on anal and rectal diseases and the administering of countless medicinal remedies would enter the stage of therapeutic oblivion.

The present work is more comprehensive in its scope than its title, Intestinal Irrigation, would at first thought seem to indicate. It is a practical book on home relief for all the symptoms of that form of internal inflammation known as proctitis and colitis. The measures that may safely be taken by the victim himself, without consulting a physician, are minutely explained; and, that he may understand his own case, every chapter goes more or less extensively into anatomical, physio­logic­al, and pathological details.

The author has kept abreast of the advancement of science in relation to his special branch of the healing art, and as the outcome of his large daily experience in this line he feels qualified to speak with authority. Victims of any of the symptoms described in this book may therefore have confidence in its statements. It conveys a message of common sense to the world at large and to the victims of intestinal ills in particular. It is a compilation of clinical talks to the author’s patients, making plain a variety of symptoms arising from a single primary cause.

As the purpose of the book is pre-eminently practical, the author felt warranted in describing minutely his own clinics, so far as any patient could apply the results to his individual needs. This, therefore, is the author’s excuse for introducing his own appliances and describing their features and uses. Certain work must be done by the sufferer himself, and no other invention in the market will aid him so materially in doing this work scientifically and efficiently.

Furthermore, it was found impossible for the author to describe what he himself was doing as a rectal specialist, or to direct sufferers on the road to relief, unless he stated how certain appliances should be employed. In the following pages, consequently, the reader will learn just what to do, for the work is above all things simple and direct, and in the writer’s judgment has the sterling quality of common sense.

Some of the chapters have already appeared, in abridged form, in the magazine Health, as contributed essays; but the text has been elaborated in the following pages and much new matter added, in order that the work should present the most mature information concerning the subjects discussed.

A.B.J.

New York, March 2, 1914.