Colonic Skulduggery

A fad for colonic irrigations has spread so widely over the U. S. that bluff Dr. Frank Hammond Krusen, supervisor of bumgut flushing at the Mayo Clinic, lost patience and wrote as follows for last week's issue of the American Medical Association Journal:

"This method of treatment has been outrageously exploited not only by the out-&-out charlatan but by the ignorant but nearly honest layman seeking to earn an income by giving irrigations for sundry diseases at so much per treatment. Finally, and most unfortunate of all, there are those within the ranks of the medical profession itself, usually self-styled 'gastro-enterologists,' who have fitted, out elaborate suites of offices with one or more 'colonic lavagatories.' . . .

"Part of the 'racket'... is to concoct and patent one or more solutions. . . . None of these solutions can be considered useful. Ordinary tap water or physiologic solution of sodium chloride at body temperature is probably more satisfactory. . . .

"Still another phase of the 'racket' indulged in by certain lay charlatans in the field is the manufacture of elaborate devices for the administration of colonic irrigations. These machines are part & parcel of the systematized skulduggery practiced by this not inconsiderable group of quacks. . . .

"I must confess to having succumbed to the temptation to purchase one such attractive machine. ... I soon found that the apparatus was in little demand and that the work could be done just as easily with 1) an ordinary treatment table, 2) a plain glass irrigation jar on a stand, 3) a rectal tube and a Y tube with two clamps, and 4) a large closed jar or an ordinary hopper to receive the return flow."

Many an able doctor uses colonic irrigations expecting thus to clean up a focal infection causing a systemic disease like arthritis; to take a load off a weak heart; to prevent absorption of poisonous fecal matter into the system.

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