Some good souls now and then become oversolicitous as to the matter they should pass when their bowels are already empty, and they feel alarmed if the enema fails to produce an evacuation. Such timid ones should remember that what they cannot accomplish at one time and with one attempt they may at the next, and that thus slowly the new order of fecal elimination will become established. It takes time and patience; but is this cause for apprehension when diagnosis, treatment, and means of relief are right? I claim that flushing of the colon is the best means for removal of the consequences of proctitis and colitis, and that it should be employed by all that have these chronic ailments. Let them get relief for the _symptoms_ at once and in this rational way, after which let them seek scientific treatment for the ailments themselves; for, sooner or later, they will be compelled to seek it by the severe complications that will inevitably set in. TRY SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL MEASURES. Some persons find difficulty in estimating--or think they do, which in most cases is nearer the truth--the amount of water they can inject at one time, when it would work a great relief to their bowels were they able to inject from two to four quarts. It is half the battle to know your efforts are rightly directed; for, when you are defeated, you will try a thousand and one changes--an experiment first with one element of the difficulty and then with another. You will experiment with the temperature, with the speed of flow into the rectum and colon, with intermittent flow, etc. Be a little scientific and original in this matter, I pray you, _and know no defeat_! As to the intermittent flow, the following way may be found judicious in some cases: Take in just sufficient water--a few ounces perhaps--to provoke an evacuation, and proceed till you have taken half a dozen or more. After this you can take a greater quantity for a washout. But this is not exactly what is meant by the term “intermittent flow.” It means that you may make the experiment--if you find it difficult to fill up after ridding yourself of the local accumulation--of turning off the stop-cock for a moment, thus giving your bowels a slight rest, and then turning it on again, alternating in this way for some minutes. Many little devices of similar utility will suggest themselves to those who know no defeat. Remember that, now that you are in serious trouble, it is not the easiest thing in the world to get out of it. Should your stomach raise objections to the enema, change the time. If abdominal pains are severe, change the temperature of the water and the time and manner of injecting it. In other words, do something different, but be determined to conquer and take the internal bath at proper periods every day. LIBERATING THE WATER.