[Foreign bodies in the rectum]

Extraneous matter in the rectum is that which has become detached either accidentally or deliberately (by mental patients) and retained in the posterior part of the intestine, or that has been introduced from outside via the anus (most often deliberately: rectal masturbation). There are countless different objects introduced in this way, and they indicate an eroticism bordering sometimes on insanity. In many cases it is difficult to extract these objects, which are often large, sometimes brittle, or, more rarely, sharp, and almost always slippery. Because of this the problem of extraction has given rise to many incontestably original procedures with which it is as well to be familiar in order to avoid having to recourse to extraction via the abdomen, a procedure which is not without risks.