Syringing

“ This will cause immediate relief of the intense pain and tinnitus which may have been set up by its movements against the sensitive tympanic membrane.
The methods employed for the removal of a foreign body are syringing, extraction by instruments through the external meatus, and removal by operation by making a post-auricular incision and reflecting forward the auricle.
By syringing. In the vast majority of cases syringing is successful, and therefore should always be tried except under the following conditions:— (a) If the foreign body be of such a nature that it may be driven inwards ”

“ Even very weak acid combines with the irritating waste matter that is keeping the sore diseased, and produces the desired healing effect. You have only to add one drop after another of the acid to your full teacupful of warm water, till the feeling produced by the syringing is all that could be desired. In the case of the limb that we refer to, a sensible mother used the syringe and the acid so skilfully as to heal the internal sore in a very short time, and thus the external wound quickly disappeared. ”

“ As soon as the ear begins running again the symptoms will disappear. After syringing the ear it should be dried thoroughly with pieces of sterile absorbent cotton.
The best syringe to use for washing out the ear is a one-ounce hard-rubber ear syringe with a soft rubber tip. An ordinary douche bag will do if a syringe of the above character cannot be obtained. The douche bag should not be held higher than two feet above the patient's head. The double-current ear irrigator is an excellent device for this purpose. The child should be on its back on a table. ”

“ The syringing should at first be daily, even twice a day if necessary, and then gradually diminished in frequency, until after the lapse of a week it is found that the maxillary sinus is quite free of any pus or flocculent mucus. By changing the obturator daily the patient can readily tell whether a washing out is required. When three to six months have passed without any trace of secretion, the empyema may be considered cured. This is the more likely if a formerly obscure sinus becomes translucent, and if the patient passes through a ‘cold’ without suppuration beginning in it again. ”

“ These solutions will not lose their virtues by age. A female syringe, which will be required in the use of the check, may be had at the shop of an apothecary for a shilling or less. If preferred, the semen may be dislodged as far as it can be, by syringing with simple water, after which some of the solution is to be injected, to destroy the fecundating property of what may remain lodged between the ridges of the vagina, etc. ”

“ The fluid should be aseptic, and at a temperature of 100° F. The patient’s head is inclined to the affected side, and the auricle is pulled upwards or backwards. The syringe is inserted a short distance within the meatus, and applied to the upper posterior wall so that the stream of lotion flows along the roof of the canal to the drum, and returns along the floor, thus washing out the contents. The best syringe is one with a metal plunger, as it can be easily sterilized. After syringing, the auditory canal should be dried and again inspected. ”

“ INJECTIONS AND IRRIGATIONS
of simple water, or of some infusion or solution. The use of the syringe as an article of essential service in preserving the health of married women should never be overlooked. Even when they are aware of no tendency to weakness or unusual discharge, it should be employed once or twice a [Pg 380] week; and when there is debility or disease of the parts actually present, it is often of the greatest service.
There are many varieties of female syringes now manufactured and sold, some of which are quite worthless. ”

“ The moment the hypodermic syringe is taken from the doctor’s or the nurse’s kit, the sufferer is made aware of the means which will be used to give him ease. He remembers it, forming a respect and admiration, almost an affection, for the mere instrument, and with the most intense interest gathers such information as he may find it possible to acquire about this wonder-working little tool and the material which is its ammunition of relief. He knows absolutely that the relief which he has found is not due to medical skill, but to the potency of a special drug administered in a special way. ”

“ The tubing and the outlets are extra large, securing a rapid discharge of the water, which reduces the time required to less than one-half that usually taken, which is a very great advantage over other syringes. This new syringe will prove a most important help in the taking of "Internal Baths" in the "New Method" treatment as recommended by Dr. Forest and others, and will prove curative in many cases when all others fail. ”

“ Now, right here, we wish to call your attention to the fact that we are not advocating the continuous use of the syringe—we do not consider it a natural habit, and fail to see its necessity, as we believe that natural habits persisted in will cause any one to regain the normal movement of the bowels, without the use of any outside help. We advocate the syringe only as a preliminary measure in order to clear away past accumulations. ”

“ To sterilise the syringe, fill it with water, loosen the packing of the piston and all the screw joints, place it in the steriliser and boil for at least five minutes. Disinfect the syringe after use, in a similar manner. The needles, which are exceedingly apt to rust after being boiled, should be stored in a pot of absolute alcohol when not in use.
3. Operating table.
4. Surgical instruments. Sterilise these before use by boiling, and disinfect them after use by the same means. Wipe perfectly dry immediately after the disinfection is completed. [Pg 345]
Scissors, probe and sharp-pointed. ”

“ The child is placed on his back or on his left side. The syringe is filled with oil, the tube is lubricated, and passed through the rectum as far as it can go. When it has been passed to the full nine inches, as may readily be done with a little practice, the syringe is emptied and the tube withdrawn. The injection should be given after the child has been placed in bed for the night. It is our object to have the oil retained during the night. If a passage of the bowels is produced at the time, or if the oil leaks out during the night, a small quantity should be used. ”

“ Beginners should use a common bulb syringe, with water rather hot, varying in quantity as they become accustomed to the process, from a quart to a gallon or more, and a bulb-full squeezed out slowly, with intervals between, giving it time to pass out of the rectum into the colon. On regaining the erect posture, if the rectum be loaded with feces or distended with water, the desire to expel its contents may be irresistible, especially if air has passed through the syringe; although a little practice will enable any one to exert great control over his or herself in this respect. ”

“ Three men had large syringes. A lad carried a pail of fluid from which they replenished them. The red-faced man watched. They went along the room in pairs, one holding the lantern while the other knelt by the sleeper and made the injection—two strokes of the piston with a pause between. One pair came to Mr. Raynor and another to me at the same time. I was too numb to feel pain when the great syringe dug deeply into my flesh, but it was well for me that I could not scream. As it was, I made a faint sound.
“Must have been near waking,” the injector said, putting the rug over my shoulders again. ”

“ Connected with the syringe are full directions with reference to its use, and the advantages to be derived from it. The mass of people are but little aware of the great benefits derived from the frequent use of common water injections. This want of practical knowledge arises more from the want of a good instrument than any other cause. We can strongly recommend Lewis's Improved Syringe in this particular. Physicians themselves would always find it advantageous to recommend a good instrument of the kind to their patients. ”

“ The syringe and hot sterilized, boiled water should be used for some time, and the patient asked occasionally if there is any faintness or dizziness caused by it. It often comes, in a lump after the water has been used for some time. A strong solution of bicarbonate of sodium is also good to use.
FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR.—These are not of frequent occurrence. In the case of children these bodies may comprise such objects as pebbles, beads, beans, pieces of rolled paper, fly, bed-bug; insect of any kind may get into ear of adults. ”

“ Never to allow a nurse, until she be ordered by the doctor, to give either brandy, or wine, or porter, or ale to the patient. (2) I should recommend every respectable monthly nurse to carry about with her an india-rubber vaginal syringe. One of the best for the purpose is Higginson’s syringe, [84] which is one constructed to act either as an enema apparatus, or, by placing the vaginal pipe over the enema pipe, as a vaginal syringe. She will thus be armed at all points, and will be ready for any emergency. It is an admirable invention, and cannot be too well known. ”

“ My suspicions were only too well confirmed by what I saw. The substance which I had extracted from the syringe was a mass of micro-organisms, but of what nature I did not know. I had never seen any quite like them before. I drew back. ”

“ One tells us that water patients are everywhere allowed to get up too soon after childbirth; another that they are kept in bed too long. One says that the vagina syringe is almost the all in all for woman kind, and would almost make us believe that women were made for syringes, and not syringes for women. Another says that the vagina syringe, so far as labor and the getting up are concerned, is at best comparatively only a poor affair; that it is not in accordance with the principles of sound physiology or pathology to throw cold water upon any bleeding surface—external or internal of the body ”

“ Parents will find the little ear syringe, which may be purchased at any drug store, a most satisfactory instrument for giving enemas to infants, as they do not hold [Pg 85] too much, and being soft, are incapable of tearing the delicate tissues of the child. ”

“ I had next to deal with that portion of the drug which had already been absorbed and was exercising its poisonous effects. Taking my hypodermic case from my bag, I prepared in the syringe a full dose of atropine sulphate, which I injected forthwith into the unconscious man's arm. And that was all that I could do, so far as remedies were concerned, until the coffee arrived.
I cleaned and put away the syringe, washed the tube, and then, returning to the bedside, endeavored to rouse the patient from his profound lethargy. But great care was necessary. ”

“ The physician should exhaust every means known to medical science to prevent his patient from knowing what it is that eases pain when his practice makes it absolutely necessary that a substance of the sort should be administered, and this is very much less frequent than the average doctor realizes, as will be shown in another passage of this book. It is in this necessity for concealment that the great danger of using the hypodermic syringe as an administrating instrument principally lies. ”

“ The alcohol solution is the least irritating of effective antiseptics and it is the solution in which needles and leather washers should be kept, so that they are at all times ready for use.
[Pg 13] THE SYRINGE. The sterilized paraffin syringe should not be handled until the hands have been scrubbed. The washers and needles, just before using, should be removed from the alcohol solution. It is unnecessary to wash the alcohol from the fingers, washers or needles, in fact, it is preferable to leave it upon them. ”

“ It is obvious that with the screw drop type of syringe the cold semisolid paraffin mixture contained in its barrel is always under the full command of the operator, nor can there be a plugging of the needle, since the great force that can be exerted with a turn of the piston handle would free it, even if the mixture were of a comparatively high melting point, although the force to be applied would naturally increase in proportion to the hardness of the mass within the syringe. ”

“ Imagine to yourself a syringe, the tube of which gives rise to an infinity of branches, which afterwards give origin successively to a number of smaller ones; if, when you push the piston of the syringe, its body and all the branches and smaller branches arising from it, are already full of fluid, it is evident that at the very instant in which the piston shall push the fluid in the body, it will go out on all sides through the open branches. ”

“ To reduce the possibility of contamination, use separate, previously unused syringes for working standards and samples. Test syringes for contamination occasionally by filling them with clean air and analyzing the contents. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A common glass barrel, metal bound, hypodermic syringe is all that is needed. It should be provided with side handles. Draw the medicine into the syringe before screwing on the needle, force out the air and gauge the nut on the piston for about as many minims as thought will be required. ”