These tumors are occasioned by the passage of hardened feces, forcing down the blood in the veins until the lining membrane is ruptured, and the blood presses out and forms small tumors; and when these are ruptured, profuse bleeding sometimes takes place.

Treatment

The best remedy we have ever found for the piles is the pile ointment mentioned in this work; it seldom fails to relieve; injections should also be used of hemlock bark and slippery elm; a tea of mullein should be drunk freely, and the bowels kept open by using coarse wheat bread, rye pudding and ripe fruit. Physic of all kinds should be avoided, and costiveness prevented by diet and exercise.