The book offered advice to qualifying surgeons and was called “Short Practice of Surgery” by Bailey & Love (1992).

“The variety of foreign bodies that have found their way into the human rectum is hardly less remarkable than the ingenuity used in their removal.

A turnip has been removed per anum (eh?!) by the use of obstetric forceps.  A stick firmly planted has been removed by the insertion of a gimlet into its lower end.  A tumbler, mouth downwards has been extracted by filling the interior with a wet Plaster of Paris bandage, leaving the end of the bandage protruding, and allowing the plaster to set.

Other items include a pepper pot, inscribed á present from Margate’.  The patient commented – I was wondering where that had got to!  You will appreciate that not all of the above were found in the same patient!

If insurmountable difficulty is experienced in grasping any foreign body in the rectum, a left lower laparotomy is necessary, which allows that object to be pushed from above into the assistant’s fingers in the rectum.  If there is considerable laceration of the mucosa, a temporary colostomy is advisable.”

You may find volunteering assistants a little difficult to come by!