PEDIATRICS Vol. 48 No. 3 September 1971, pp. 358
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A BIZARRE METHOD TO TREAT INTUSSUSCEPTION

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

In the mid-nineteenth century, intussusception was an almost universally fatal disease, save for the occasional child who responded to inflation of the bowel or to enemas.1 Of all the nonoperative forms of treatment (the first successful operation for intussusception in a child was performed by Hutchinson2 in 1871), none is more outlandish than this published in 1857:

Intussusception

In which one portion of the bowel falls down into another, like as when a stocking is turned half way inside out, effectually prevents any passage from the bowels, and death is inevitable, unless relief is given. Our intimation previously, that a pint of molasses drank while quite warm, had been known to give immediate relief, has caused a suggestion from W. H. Stanton, of Knoxville, that his father's sheep were invariably cured of a similar ailment, by being taken by the hind legs and swung around several times. As ludicrous as this "operation" might seem in its application to a human being, we would not hesitate to try it, in case other things failed. To us there is a kind of grandeur in all that is true and practical.

The most violent case of hysterics may be instantly arrested, if a great indignity is offered to the patient, such as slapping in the face with your slipper; and yet that is a better remedy than a plug of the intolerable Asafoetida.3




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