This mode of administering medicine constitutes a very important part of the Thomsonian practice, and ought not to be omitted in consequence of a false delicacy on the part of the patient, or to avoid the labor on the part of the physician. In no other way can medicine be administered to accomplish so much, in obstinate cases, as by injections. They not only act on the bowels to remove fecal matter, but also produce the effect with much more promptness, than the medicines composing the injections will produce, when taken into the stomach. In all cases of irritability of the stomach, colic, stoppage in the bowels, costiveness, fits, lock-jaw, etc., injections are indispensable. They should be prepared in reference to the indications to be accomplished.

If the object is simply to evacuate the bowels, half a teaspoonful of composition, and as much slippery elm in a gill of hot water, will answer the purpose. If to check a diarrhœa, or for the piles, a strong tea of hemlock bark should be used instead of hot water. But the formula under the head of compounds will be the best for ordinary cases, increasing or diminishing the quantity of lobelia, etc., as the case may require. Dr. Thomson says, with much truth, that it is better to administer injections ten times when they are not necessary, than omit them once when needed.