Molasses enema?

August 17, 2014 Chapter 1 - [Kill-devil] …Thomas Cadwalader wrote an essay on the dry gripes and its treatments, and noted among the symptoms “excessive griping pains in the pit of the stomach and bowels, which are much distended with wind … at other times there is a sensation, as if the bowels were drawn together by ropes.” In some cases, “the patient begins to break wind backwards, which is some times exceeding offensive.” (It strains the imagination to think of times this would not be “exceeding offensive.”) Other associated problems included paralysis of the limbs and, in dire cases, death. The supposed remedy was scarcely better than the dry gripes itself: A molasses enema was often prescribed. All Excerpts From Curtis, Wayne. “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails.” THREE RIVERS PRESS, 2007. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.