Absorption of drugs from the rectum.

The administration of drugs by the rectum has been practised from the earliest times. Prescriptions for suppositories were found in the Ebers Papyrus (Bryan, 1930). It would appear that these suppositories were intended for the local treatment of disease of the proctodeum. In more recent years, the idea arose that the rectal route could be used for systematic medication, either as supplementary to the oral route or as an alternative when medicine could not be given by mouth. Cullen appears to have been among the first to realize the wider possibilities of rectal medication (Thomson, 1827). In describing the treatment of tetanus, he wrote that large quantities of opium should be employed before deglutition becomes difficult, ' or that, if this opportunity be lost, the medicine, in sufficient quantity, and with due frequency, should be thrown into the body by clyster; which does not seem to have been hitherto often practised.'