is a liquid remedy, to be injected chiefly at the anus into the larger intestine. It is usually administered by the bladder of a hog, sheep, or ox, perforated at each end, and having at one of the apertures an ivory pipe fastened with pack-thread. But the French, and sometimes the Dutch, use a pewter syringe, by which the liquor may be drawn in with more ease and expedition than in the bladder, and likewise more forcibly expelled into the large intestine. This remedy should never be administered either too hot or too cold, but tepid; for either of the former will be injurious to the bowels.

Clysters are sometimes used to nourish and support a patient who can swallow little or no aliment, by reason of some impediment in the organs of deglutition; in which case they may be made of broth, milk, ale, and decoctions of barley and oats with wine. The English introduced a new kind of clyster, made of the smoke of tobacco, which has been used by several other nations, and appears to be of considerable efficacy when other clysters prove ineffectual, and particularly in the iliac passion, in the hernia incarcerata, and for the recovery of drowned persons.