Editing Enema (section)

==== Europe ====
[[File:The Enema MET DP818226.jpg|thumb|''The Enema'' by [[Abraham Bosse]], ca. 1632–33]]
[[Hippocrates]] (460–370 BCE) frequently mentions enemas, e.g., "if the previous food which the patient has recently eaten should not have gone down, give an enema if the patient be strong and in the prime of life, but if he be weak, a suppository should be administered, should the bowels be not well moved on their own accord."<ref>Friedenwald & Morrison, 'Part I:71</ref>

In the first century BCE the [[Ancient Greek medicine|Greek physician]] [[Asclepiades of Bithynia]] wrote "Treatment consists merely of three elements: drink, food, and the enema".<ref>Scarborough, ''The Drug Lore of ASCLEPIADES of Bithynia'':44</ref> Also, he contended that indigestion is caused by particles of food that are too big and his prescribed treatment was proper amounts of food and wine followed by an enema which would remove the improper food doing the damage.<ref>Scarborough, ''The Drug Lore of ASCLEPIADES of Bithynia'':46</ref>

In the second century CE the Greek physician [[Soranus (Greek physician)|Soranus]] prescribed, among other [[Surgery in Ancient Rome|techniques]], enemas as a safe [[abortion]] method,<ref>{{cite book|author=Soranus|translator=Owsei Temkin |title=Soranus' Gynecology|date=1956|publisher=JHU Press|pages=62–67|isbn=9780801843204}}</ref> and the Greek philosopher [[Celsus]] recommended an enema of pearl barley in milk or rose oil with butter as a nutrient for those with dysentery and unable to eat,<ref name=Royal_Pharmaceutical>{{cite web |url=http://www.rpharms.com/museum-pdfs/21-enemas.pdf |title = Information Sheet:21 Enemas |website = Information Sheets |publisher = Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306155528/https://www.rpharms.com/museum-pdfs/21-enemas.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-06 |access-date=2020-01-03 }}</ref> and also Galen mentions enemas in several contexts.<ref name=Galen>{{Citation |last = Mattern |first = Susan P. |year = 2008 |title = Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing |publisher = [[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location = Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland, USA |isbn=978-0-8018-8835-9 |pages = 31, 145, 149 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5IXlOC1_liEC }}</ref>

In medieval times appear the first illustrations of enema equipment in the [[Western world]], a clyster syringe consisting of a tube attached to a pump action bulb made of a pig bladder.{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}
A simple piston [[syringe]] clyster was used from the 15th through 19th centuries. This device had its rectal nozzle connected to a syringe with a plunger rather than to a bulb.{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}