Many years ago in an old house in Central New York (Upstate) I found
several glass syringes that were not for needle injection, but were clearly
enemas.  They were exacly as several people described, glass tubes, with
glass plungers, the end wrapped in twine to form a seal when wet, a cork
with hole in it to plug the top opening.  The only difference was that the
business ends had several small holes like a watering can spout to diffuse
the fluid.  In the deposit I also found a very decayed rubber tip, almost
like a small baby bottle nipple, but which was more like the tip of a
turkey baster.  While several baby bottles were also found, this tip did
not fit any of them (was not the usual nipple form, either) and therefore I
surmised that, since it would have fit perfectly over the tip of the enema
syringe, it was an adapter for a secondary usage - I hazard to guess what,
though.

I dated the deposit through contents and historical documentation to the
1890s, and assign it to the superannuity of two residents, the wife who
died in 1892 at the age of 86 or the husband who died in 1898 at the age of
93.  Also found were several medicine bottles including a local drug label
for laudenum, a couple dozen bottles of Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup, cattarh
pills, etc.

A small selection of baby bottles, children's toys, including a tin horse,
gun, doll parts, magazine clippings of lithographed childrens' subjects,
and parts of a doll tea set, could be associated with the grandchildren who
were born and lived in the extended household between 1882 and 1905.

A few years ago on some now anonymous project I found a brass syringe which
was exactly the same in virtually every way shape and form as the glass
ones I found in the old house.  No temporal context was determined.

        Dan W.




CRCG (formerly RAM) from New Brunswick, NJ excavated a doctor's privy which
AI believe dated to around 1876.  This privy had a load of glass syringes
in it.  Richard Veit wrote an article on the privy in CNHA's bulletin a
while back but I don't known if mentioned the syringes as they were not the
focus of the article.  But as the excavator and lab supervisor at the time
I remember they were very large.  I have a glass syringe that I picked up
at a flea market.  The tube is clear (4") but the plunger is cobalt blue
and at the end of the plunger it was wrapped with cotton thread (I think
this swells when wet thus producing the suction needed for it to work.  The
other end goes through a cork which can be removed for filling.  The end of
the glass tube has a black hard rubber tip attached.