arge the contents of the rectum, owing to pain of the sphincter. The
pain is produced by indurated feces, or by some acrid material, as the
acidity of indigested aliment; and the efforts are attended with mucus from
the pained membrane. The feces must sometimes be taken away by the end of a
marrow-spoon, as cathartics and even clyster will pass without removing
them. It is sometimes caused by sympathy with the urethra, when there is a
stone at the neck of the bladder. See Class II. 2. 2. 7. and IV. 1. 2. 8.
M. M. Fomentation, an enema with mucilage and laudanum.
The common exclusion of the feces from the rectum is a process similar to
this, except that the muscles of the sphincter ani, and those of the
abdomen, which act along with them by the combined powers of sensation and
association, are in tenesmus excited by painful sensation, and in the
latter by a sensation, which may in some instances be almost called
pleasurable, as relieving us from a painful one in the exclusion of the
feces.
11. _Stranguria._ Strangury consists in painful efforts to discharge the
contents of the urinary bladder. It is generally owing to a stone in the
sphincter of the bladder; or to the inflammation of the neck of it
occasioned by cantharides. It is sometimes caused by sympathy with the
piles; and then is liable in women to occasion convulsions, from the
violence of the pain without inflammation. See Class IV. 2. 2. 2. and 3.
M. M. Fomentation clyster with oil and laudanum, push the stone back with a
bougie; if from cantharides give half a pint of warm water every ten
minutes. Mucilage of gum arabic and tragacanth.
The natural evacuation of the urine is a process similar to this, except
that the muscular fibres of the bladder, and the muscles of the abdomen,
which act in concert with them by the combined powers of sensation and of
association, are, in the former case of strangury, excited into action by
painful sensation; and in the latter by a sensation, which may almost be
termed pleasurable, as it relieves us from a previous uneasy one.
The ejectio feminis is another process in some respects similar to
strangury, as belonging to the same sensible canal of the urethra, and by
exciting into action the accelerator muscles; but in the strangury these
muscles are excited into action by painful sensation, and in the ejection
of the semen by pleasureable sensation.
12. _Parturitio._ Parturition is not a disease, it is a natural pro
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