Atropine Sulphate in Strangulated Hernia

In medical practice atropine sulphate is relied upon to relieve the acute pain caused by spasmodic contractions of involuntary muscle, such as occur in renal and intestinal colic. The acute pain of strangulated hernia is also due?in the majority of cases?to spasm of involuntary muscle of-the strangulated coils of intestine. If the spasm is relieved, reduction of the hernia may be much easier. With this idea in view, I began to administer atropine sulphate in doses of 1 [50th grain in such cases, and have succeeded in effecting reduction of the hernia in cases where the application of ice and subsequent gentle traxis failed. The following is such a recent case: Mr. ?, aged 50 years, had been the subject of scrotal hernia for years. On the 26th June 1927 strangulation of the hernia suddenly set in in the afternoon. A local doctor, who was called in, applied ice and tried to reduce the hernia without success. I was called in after dark and found