CONSTIPATION, DYSENTERY, GRIPES AND PILES
It may at first sight appear strange to have four different ailments put
together in this chapter, but, as a matter of fact, they are all so
closely connected, and may be cured more or less in the same way. When
the stomach gets clogged by undigested matter, it leads to one or other
of these diseases, according to the varying constitutions of
individuals. In some it produces constipation. The bowels do not move,
or move only partly, and there is great straining at stools, until it
results in bleeding, or at times in the discharge of mucus, or piles. In
others, it leads to diarrhea, which often ends in dysentery. In others
again, it may give rise to gripes, accompanied by pain in the stomach
and the discharge of mucus.
In all these cases, the patient loses his appetite, his body gets pale
and weak, his tongue gets coated, and his breath foul. Many also suffer
from headache and other complaints. Constipation, indeed, is so common
that hundreds of pills and powders have been invented to cure it. The
chief function of such patent medicines as Mother Siegel's Syrup and
Eno's Fruit-salt is to relieve constipation, and hence thousands of
people go in for them in the vain hope of being cured for good. Any
_Vaid_ or _Hakim_ will tell you that constipation and the like are the
result of indigestion, and that the best way to cure them is to remove
the causes of indigestion; but the more candid among them will confess
that they are forced to manufacture pills and powders, since the
patients are not really prepared to renounce their bad habits, but at
the same time want to get cured. Indeed the present-day advertisments of
such medicines go to the extent of promising to those that would buy
them that they need observe no directions as to diet and the like, but
may eat and drink whatever they like. But my readers need not be told
that this is a mere string of lies. All purgatives are invariably
injurious to health. Even the mildest of them, even if they relieve the
constipation, give rise to other forms of disease. If they should do any
good at all, the patient should thoroughly change his ways of life, so
as not to have to turn to purgatives again; otherwise, there can be no
doubt that they must give rise to new diseases, even supposing that they
serve to get rid of the old.
The very first thing to do in cases of constipation and the like is to
reduce the quantity of food, especially such heavy things as ghee, sugar
and cream of milk. Of course, he should eschew altogether wine, tobacco,
bhang, tea, coffee, cocoa, and loaves made of "mill flour." The diet
should consist for the most part of fresh fruits with olive oil.
The patient should be made to starve for 36 hours before treatment
begins. During this time and after, mud-poultices should be applied to
the abdomen during sleep; and, as has been already said, one or two
"Kuhne baths" should also be taken. The patient should be made to walk
for at least two hours every day. I have myself seen severe cases of
constipation, dysentery, piles and gripes effectively cured by this
simple treatment. Piles may not, of course, completely disappear, but
they will certainly cease to give trouble. The sufferer from gripes
should take special care not to take any food except lime-juice in hot
water, so long as there is discharge of blood or mucus. If there is
excessive griping pain in the stomach, it can be cured by warming with a
bottle of hot water or a piece of well-heated brick. Needless to say,
the patient should live constantly in the open air.
Fruits like the French plum, the raisin, the orange and the grape, are
particularly useful in constipation. This does not, of course, mean that
these fruits may be eaten even where there is no hunger. They ought not
to be eaten at all in cases of gripes accompanied by a bad taste in the
mouth.