Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Rectum, Anus, and Contiguous Textures #266822

IN the whole range of surgical pathology no other class of diseases among civilized communities is so prevalent, causes more suffering, and induces so many varied reflex and distress ing sympathetic affections as the diseases occurring about the anus and rectum. This is because of the structure of the anus and rectum, their peculiar office in the economy of nature, and their relation to the important organs in their immediate vicinity. Happily for the sufferers, no other class of complaints succumbs more readily to judicious and, in the majority of cases, to simple treatment, when properly applied at the onset of the disease. Unfortunately, from mistaken delicacy or carelessness, patients often postpone seeking proper advice until the local symptoms have become unbearable or the constitution seriously deranged; or, from the prominence and severity of some one of the reflex or sympathetic effects, they are induced to adopt a variety of empirical remedies which fail in the restoration of health and are often productive of pernicious results. Many of these dis eases spring from irregularities in habit engendered by sedent ary pursuits, or they result from indulgence in the luxuries of civilized life. They are, therefore, more prevalent in the middle and upper circles of society; though they are not infrequently found in all classes.