Antiseptic Employment of Powders and Oils 208
INTESTINAL IRRIGATION.
CHAPTER I.
EFFORTS TO OVERCOME CONSTIPATION WITHOUT SEEKING ITS CAUSE.
In the year 1496 an Italian, Gatenaria, invented an appliance for
taking an enema; since that time depuratory instruments have had more
or less vogue in all civilized countries. Of late years inventive
powers have been taxed to construct more convenient and effective
appliances, and now perfection has been almost reached, and the poor
civilizee, whose habits are really very bad from the savage point of
view, may enjoy the delicious privilege of an internal bath whenever he
feels the need of it. By any other name this bath is just as purifying:
call it irrigation, injection, lavement, clyster, enema--its many names
and what they mean testify to the fact that it is for the disease of
civilization.
The medical profession is really behind the layman in
genuine therapeutic measures. It still cares more for the
pill-and-powder-prescription-earning fee than for the real health of
the patient. When it shall wean itself from its sordid commercialism,
it will make the use of the enema a fundamental factor in most forms of
therapeutic treatment, and then the enema will become universal.
From the origin of the enema to the present day, the layman has not
been unmindful of this valuable resource for removing morbid matter
from his physiological sewer. The great relief he thus obtained, and
the invariably good results that followed its use, established as a
necessary toilet article some form of depuratory apparatus in many
homes for all time to come.
But of the nature of the disease that had occasioned its use, both
layman and physician were, and for the most part are, ignorant. Local
obstruction and discomfort were sufficient to suggest this mode of
relief; yet no truly scientific inquiry seems to have been instituted
to discover the cause of the obstruction. The author, during an
experience of over twenty-three years as a specialist in diseases
of the bowels, rectum, and anus, has found the true cause, namely,
PROCTITIS; that is, the chronic inflammation (dating often from infancy
and childhood) of the anus, rectum, and frequently of a portion of
the sigmoid flexure and colon. Proctitis is practically the universal
cause of chronic constipation. Victims of constipation have more or
less haphazardly resorted to the enema as a ready means of relief--a
recourse that was often, nay generally, against the advice of their
medical counselor: a professional opposition that indicates either
ignorance, mistaken judgment, or fear of losing a profitable patient.
But the layman has not been uniformly wise. He is an experimenter on
his own hook--encouraged in his experiments by the most promising
and seductive of advertisements in the whole gamut of advertising.
He experimented on his organism, tinkering it now with cathartics or
purgatives of multiform nature, and again with digestive and other
agents. This tinkering habit seems to have become all but universal
with civilized man. Constipation--which is caused by proctitis--will,
of course, bring indigestion and biliousness and diarrhea and
nervousness and headache and a host of other maladies in its train; all
of these induce the civilizee to increase his tinkering with his divine
abode until it eventually falls in ruins. The tinkerer loses sight of
the fact that his abode is not a body like the bodies of wood, stone,
and iron that he handles and putters with daily; he forgets or ignores
the fact that it is a vital organic machine, which, when tinkered too
much, will stop, “never to go again.” It is poor consolation when you
have reached your last gasp, after a chronic invalidism, to feel that
you have done the best you knew how. You have not sought the cause,
nor, having learned it somehow, sought to remove or avoid it. For the
last four hundred years this tinkering, this futile medication, has
been kept up at a furious pace without even a hope of permanent cure.
Poor, outraged human nature dimly knew that it was simply doctoring a
symptom, a _consequence_ of something or other--for that is all that
constipation and its host of symptoms really are.
The writer is of the opinion that constipation is the fundamental
disease that afflicts mankind; that, at all events, there are more
cases of proctitis than of any other disease; that very few “civilized”
persons are free from it; that so prevalent a disease must have a
common origin, which he traces right back to babyhood, to the wearing
of soiled diapers, a practice that cannot but result in inflammation of
the buttocks and mucous membrane of the anus and rectum; and that this
inflammation continues and finally becomes deepened and established,
producing in after years chronic constipation and its train of evils.
Of course, there are other causes that bring on proctitis among
children and adults; but careful examination shows that the severity
of the malady with its train indicates long duration in the tissues
comprising the wall of the anal and rectal canals and the adjoining
tissues of the bowels.
Proctitis, with its extension, colitis, is by no means a slight
disease, as it is supposed to be by a few members of the medical
fraternity who are beginning to apprehend its existence; on the
contrary, it is so serious that its gravity cannot be impressed too
forcibly upon both laymen and physicians. During the many years of
special attention the writer has given to diseases of the anus, rectum,
colon, etc., he has not ceased to wonder how it was possible that the
victim of deep-seated proctitis could have so dreadful a disease
and not be greatly alarmed at its ravages and dangers. The anatomy,
physiology, and hygiene of the parts involved in this inflammation
continue in some manner to permit the passage of excrement along the
diseased canal; and the victim continues to swallow drugs and tinker
with these--his irreplaceable “inards.”[1]
[1] For numerous illustrations of the various morbid conditions of
the anus and rectum, see the author’s 64-page booklet, entitled _How
to Become Strong_.
It is not my purpose at present to go into a detailed description of
the organs involved in this inflammatory process, but to make plain why
the enema is superior to all other means of securing cleanliness. When
we know why we do a thing, the task is not so difficult and annoying
as when we go it blind or simply obey the behest of a physician.
Ignorance has no business bothering with anything; experience, however,
is usually a painful if not a fatal instructor. The human race at
large is ignorant concerning the normal and abnormal processes of its
internal organs. “Out of sight, out of mind” seems to be the maxim of
almost every one as to our vital organs and the conditions for their
hygienic functioning. The purpose of the writer will be achieved if he
succeed in sounding a note of warning that will be heard and heeded by
those whose influence will extend the echoes till the world listens and
learns the claims of the inner physiological economy.
Those that possess even a modicum of sense will easily understand how
a muscular tube like the anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, etc., when
invaded and traversed for eight to ten or more inches by disease, will
offer obstruction to the descent and escape of gases and feces. All
are familiar with the contraction that occurs when a finger, hand, or
limb is inflamed; how little we can then use the diseased part until
all of the inflammation has left the muscular tissue. Why do we give
so much attention to an inflamed external part and none at all to the
all-important internal organ for the expulsion of the sewage of the
body? The parts are not “weak” when contracted with inflammation:
weakness is not what is the matter with them. The trouble is that
the muscular fiber is then too active, made so by the excessive
irritation of the local disorder. Irritation of muscular tissue always
causes contraction of its fiber. Such contraction well accounts for
constipation.
We are a nation of constipated people, so constipated indeed that we
have developed dyspepsia and neurasthenia. As I have already stated,
the chief ill of “civilized” people is proctitis; the chief symptom
of proctitis is constipation; the chief symptom of constipation is
dyspepsia; and the chief symptom of dyspepsia is neurasthenia, and so
on and on--all of them the outcome of imperfect elimination of morbid
matter from the intestinal canal.
The common sense learned in the treatment of external parts should be
applied to such diseased portions of the body as the anus, rectum,
etc. Common sense declares that an enema ought to be used on all
occasions of undue retention of the contents of the bowels. It is the
only sensible thing under the circumstances. Yet, for the last four
hundred years, only independent men and women have had the courage to
proclaim its merits, since the subject was under the ban of both laymen
and physicians. Now that we have learned the absolute necessity of such
a device, it is to be hoped that the taboo will be removed, and that
the numerous victims of proctitis will be instructed in the wisdom of
availing themselves of the valuable aid of the enema in either curing
proctitis or preventing it from growing worse, while they are at the
same time securing relief through its use by the removal of feces and
gases several times daily, thus preventing the absorption of poison,
which the retention of waste invariably facilitates.
CHAPTER II.
PATHOLOGY OF THE ANUS AND RECTUM; OR, THE GENESIS OF CONSTIPATION.
When an affliction is seemingly universal it is reasonable to conclude
that it springs from universal conditions. Proctitis, the most
widespread disease of civilized man, originates very early in life, and
develops in after years numerous painful symptoms--such as piles or
hemorrhoids, constipation, etc.
Now, what is the most common exciter of proctitis, which, as has been
said, is an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the anus and rectum?
In my earlier work, _Intestinal Ills_, I have shown that inattention to
the soiled diaper is generally the original cause of this most grievous
of ills, with its train of malign consequences continuing throughout
the victim’s life on earth. Unnoticed by nurse or mother, the
inflammation of the anus and rectum makes headway with each subsequent
soiling; and thereafter, when the use of the diaper is dispensed with,
inattention to the normal action of the bowels, improper food, the
resort to purgatives, stimulants, and opiates, play no small part in
aggravating the existing malady.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.
A portion of the wall of the rectum has been removed exposing various
layers: 1, serous layer; 2, muscular layers; 3, 3, submucous layers; 4,
4, mucous membrane; 5, internal sphincter muscle; 6, external sphincter
muscle; 7, circular muscular bands forming the rectum; 8, rectum;
9, sigmoid flexure. (See Fig. 7, showing the longitudinal muscular
bands.)]
The first care-taker of the infant is therefore responsible for the
initial process, which progresses to a chronic condition by subsequent
inattention. She is indeed solicitous over the inflamed buttocks of her
charge, but overlooks the far more dangerous inflammation of the mucous
membrane of the anus and rectum, or she does not realize its insidious
and subtly progressive character. Candidates for motherhood should be
instructed on this momentous subject.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.
_a_, Ulcer on sphincter ani. _b_, Filaments of two nerves are exposed
on the ulcer, the one a nerve of sensation, the other of motion, both
attached to the spinal marrow, thus constituting an excito-motory
apparatus. _c_, Levator ani. _d_, Transversus perinei. (Hilton.)]
There are other exciting causes of proctitis, but, since they are
exceptional when compared with the neglected diaper, we need not
concern ourselves with them at present.
The muscular coat of the rectum consists of two layers: an inner
circular and an outer longitudinal band. The inner circular layer of
muscular tissue of the rectum forms the internal sphincter muscle;
and the outer longitudinal bands merge with those of the external
sphincter. The anal orifice is closed or guarded by two strong
sphincter muscles, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. These muscles are
abundantly supplied with nerves, of which branches are distributed to
the bladder and other adjacent organs, which accounts for the sympathy
of these organs and their grave disturbance when disease inheres in the
anus and rectum.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.
_a_, Sacrum. _b_, Coccyx. _c_, Tuberosity of ischium. _d_, Posterior
or larger sacro-sciatic ligament. _e_, Anterior or small sacro-sciatic
ligament, with the pudic nerve passing over its posterior aspect, and
proceeding to the rectum and penis. _f_, Sphincter ani receiving its
nervous supply from the pudic nerve. Portions of the muscles have
been cut away, in order to show nerve filaments going to the mucous
membrane, through the muscular fibers. _g_, Levator ani. _h_, Fat
and areolar tissue occupying the ischiorectal fossa and covering the
levator ani. _i_, Transverse muscles of perineum. _k_, Erector penis.
_l_, Accelerator urinæ. 1, Pudic nerve. 2, Posterior sacral nerves
proceeding to posterior part of the coccyx and to the sphincter ani. 3,
Anterior sacral nerve (4th) supplying the sphincter ani. (Hilton.)]
The orifice used for the elimination of undigested food and waste
matter plays quite as important a part in the organic economy as the
orifice that is employed for receiving food. Normal elimination,
physiological and psychological, is the correlative process to
prehension (seizure or appropriation), and the concord of the two forms
the key-note of the organism.
The muscles and tissues constituting the anal vent should be as
flexible and responsive to the will or desire of the rectum for relief
of its contents as the lips are in permitting the saliva to escape.
In like manner the upper portion of the rectum (Figs. 6 and 8) should
respond with instant readiness to the effort of the sigmoid flexure to
expel its contents. But an abnormal condition like inflammation rooted
in the anus and lower part of the rectum (Fig. 1, 4–4) will inhibit the
passage of the pressing burden above them, which inhibition will cause
the inflammation to extend to the sigmoid flexure, and thence on to the
colon proper; and sooner or later the inflammation will penetrate the
submucous coat (Fig. 1, 3–3), which is composed of fatty or areolar
connective tissue in which trunks of nerves and blood-vessels are
imbedded.
The first symptom of inflammation is undue redness, followed by
slight puffiness of the anal and rectal mucous membrane (Fig. 1,
4–4), with more or less sensitiveness of the tissues involved; and
as its irritability increases there is more or less contraction of
the muscular tissue forming the anus and rectum, which lessens the
diameter of their bore. And the consequence of this contraction
is of physiological concern to the victim, for in proportion to
the contraction the normal demand of the victim for relief of the
impending feces and gas is modified and lessened.
In health, the anal canal is from two to three inches in length, and
it will distend about two inches--an elasticity quite equal to that
of any other orifice of the body. As the anal tissues are usually the
first to be invaded by disease, it is but natural that the obstipation
or constipation should occur right above it--namely, in the rectum. The
average length of the rectum is about six inches, and when the disease
invades its whole length the constipation occurs in the sigmoid flexure
and may thence extend to the colon.
The filling of the intestine with feces and gases usually occurs just
above the diseased portion of the gut; but at the same time the walls
of the affected part of the canal are more or less coated with feces,
and its abnormal pouches here and there contain more or less liquefied
or dried feces. A diseased canal cannot expel all of its contents,
since its normal expulsive power is gone. Some of the feces somehow or
other gets down and out, but a larger portion inevitably remains. It
is for this reason that a diseased intestine always reminds one of the
Augean stable. It is simply marvelous that the human body continues as
a living organism with so much filth and bacterial poison stored in its
alimentary canal, and the vaults that result from abnormal pressure
during periods of fecal impaction (Fig. 4).
When the inflammatory process extends up the rectum and at the same
time into the spongy, fatty, or areolar tissue under the mucous
membrane (Fig. 1, 3–3), thence to the muscular and serous layers
(Fig. 1, 2–1), or through the four layers of tissue comprising its
wall, we have a more marked and serious occlusion (closing) of the
organ than when only the mucous membrane was affected. When muscular
tissue is inflamed, its tendency is to contract and become solidified
by an adhesive inflammatory product secreted between the circular
and longitudinal muscular fibres (Fig. 1, 7, and Fig. 7). Often the
circular or sphincter muscles forming the anal canal have to be
distended to bring about a more normal vent. The same pathological
conditions that occasion contraction of the anal bore or caliber occur,
more or less, as far up the gut as the disease has advanced.
In a normal state of the lower bowel the sigmoid flexure passes its
contents into the rectum, and the desire to defecate is reported--that
is, the impulse to stool becomes more or less urgent until it is
performed. But when all four coats of the anus and rectum are diseased,
with perhaps a portion of the sigmoid flexure also, it is very
difficult for the healthy portion of the sigmoid flexure and the colon
to discharge their contents into the rectum; consequently no call,
impulse, or desire reaches the mind. Constipation will then ensue, for
the stool, not being called for, is not performed. Every demand of a
healthy portion of the intestine is answered by increased contraction
of the muscles of the diseased portion of the rectum. While the war
between the healthy and the diseased sections of the bowels goes on,
the victim naturally concludes that there is no occasion or demand for
defecation, and he attends to other affairs, ignorant of the fact that
he is thus making a fatal mistake.
The first condition that ensues is the tendency of the rectum to fill
unduly with feces and gases, impelling the victim to “strain” in
order to force the feces through the constricted anal canal. After a
while the sigmoid flexure and colon will fill unduly, and then the
victim will form the habit of waiting for the feces to descend, and of
straining to expel what little manages to escape through the diseased
gut.
A portion of the imprisoned feces in the healthy section of the
intestine sometimes, at an unguarded moment, manages to distribute
itself along the length of the diseased and constricted canal, where
it is retained indefinitely, increasing the local irritation. And when
the fecal mass accumulates sufficiently in both the healthy and the
diseased portions of the intestines to set up a vigorous excitement,
the victim may, by the aid of his waiting and straining habit
(which habit, by the way, only torments and bruises the chronically
diseased organs), bring on some sort of evacuation. In the early
history of the disease this habit may serve for a time; but, as the
disease progresses, the “laxative” habit is formed, which, in turn,
settles into a chronic “drug” habit for all sorts and conditions of
gastro-intestinal and other ills, which inevitably ensue. As the
ravages of chronic inflammation of the anus and rectum increase, the
symptoms rapidly multiply, till finally the victim, in desperation,
feels that he must find additional sources of relief--and, among other
habits, he forms the “diet” habit.
The order of abnormal habits brought into existence by ulcerative
inflammation of the anus, rectum, and colon is about as follows: (1)
the habit of unduly retaining the feces in the rectum; (2) the habit of
straining at stool; (3) the habit of unduly retaining the feces in the
sigmoid flexure; (4) the habit of resorting to the use of purgatives,
pepsin, and other drugs; (5) the chronic “physic” habit; (6) the
foolish “diet” habit; (7) the gastro-intestinal neurasthenic habit; (8)
the health-resort habit; (9) the habit of trying desperately to appear
agreeable while feeling really ill; (10) the habit of blaming the liver
for all direful feelings, physical and mental.
It is but natural that the lower portion of the rectal and anal
structures should be affected more severely than any other portion of
the intestines by the ulcerative, inflammatory process. The sphincter
muscles are very strong, as a rule, and fill their office only too
well when the anal and rectal canals are in a diseased state, for
they effectually prevent the contents from escaping. Often their
contraction or stricture is so great that their expansion is limited to
from one-fourth to one-half an inch. This virtually permanent closure
of the anal vent naturally results in an accumulation of feces just
above it, or in the lower portion of the rectum, which accounts for the
dilatation, stretching, or ballooning of the anal and rectal tissues
immediately above these muscles, as shown in Fig. 4.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.
1, The dotted lines indicate the normal direction of the anus and
rectum; 2, 4, the cavities or pouch formed by dilatation or ballooning
from the storage of impacted feces; 3, a probe bent at right angles,
and introduced through a speculum, to ascertain the depth of the pouch,
which is frequently found to be two and a half inches.]
In not a few cases where dilatation of the rectum exists, the upper
half or more of the anal canal is also dilated, leaving an anal canal
only an eighth of an inch in length in some cases; in other cases,
perhaps half an inch to an inch.
Similar dilatation of the sigmoid flexure occurs as the result of the
severe contraction of the upper half of the rectum, and especially at
the bend shown by Fig. 6 and Fig. 12. This bend forms quite a sphincter
for the normal receptacle--the sigmoid flexure. Here also prolapse,
distention, and dislocation of the sigmoid flexure may occur, somewhat
similar to the anal prolapse from disease and abuse.
Piles and itching of the anus are symptoms of proctitis, or
inflammation of the anus and rectum. Why should we find such dissimilar
symptoms proceeding from the same cause? The reason is plain when we
consider the results following chronic inflammation of the mucous
membrane of the anus and rectum and the deeper tissues. Those who
suffer from catarrh of this membrane are familiar with the discharge
of mucus that appears from time to time during the progress of the
inflammation. But, as the inflammation penetrates the mucous membrane
and the underlying tissues of the anus and rectum, the escape of the
inflammatory product is prevented; and this imprisoned fluid must
either be absorbed by the system or retained in reservoirs or in
channels wherever the least resistance is offered to its invasion.
The mucous membrane of the anus and rectum is loosely attached to the
subjacent parts by areolar tissue (Fig. 1, 3–3), which is sufficiently
lax to allow an expansion of two inches; and in a puckered or
contracted state the membrane is thrown into folds, or into shallow
or deep wrinkles. The loose areolar attachment and folds of various
depths afford space for lodgment of the inflammatory discharge, which
channels its way down along the folds through the areolar tissue under
the mucous membrane to that of the integument, and so on for a distance
of a foot or more from the anus in some cases.
CHAPTER III.
THE FORMATION OF CHANNELS, PILES, AND FISTULAS.
Should channels, of varying length and numbers, form early in the
development of proctitis, the sufferer is usually found to be free from
piles, or hemorrhoids, for the reason that the channels have afforded
an outlet to the inflammatory product. The formation of lengthy
channels also prevents to a great extent the development of skinny tabs
round about the integument of the anus. This is some compensation to
the sufferer for the labor of scratching and for enduring the painful
itching so often present. Some suffer only from pain along the channels
themselves, while others experience a slight disturbance of the nervous
system; yet all must be more or less poisoned from the absorption of so
large an amount of the contents of the channels and cavities.
In the cavities and along the channels the areolar tissue is of a
mahogany color, and no channel is traced to its end so long as the
tissues present a bruised, inflamed appearance. In some cases the
inflammatory product has destroyed the areolar tissue attached to the
integument at and near the anus, frequently to the extent of leaving a
hollow space or cavity of surprising dimensions. I have met only a few
cases in which the channels were opened by pus forming in them. Those
that are very shallow, the walls being friable, may break and form a
fissure of the anus; or a little anal fistula may arise from a slight
suppuration at its end in the integument near the anus.
In cases where the channels are few and short, whether itching be
present or not, the pile tumors are likewise few and of moderate size,
demonstrating the intimate relation of the aggravation of either of the
symptoms or the moderation of both in the same case. Very frequently
pile tumors have channels extending from them to the junction of
the mucous membrane and integument of the anus, or even under the
integument about the anus, forming rugæ, or tabs.
The number and size of pile tumors would seem to depend on how
completely the inflammatory product is imprisoned in the tissues in
what is termed the “pile-bearing” region. Often the treatment of piles,
or hemorrhoids, aids very much in the cure of itching at the anus--by
destroying a part of the channels involved in the pile structures in
the mucous membrane of the lower end of the rectum and extending along
under the anal membrane and the integument of the anus.
The meshes and layers of the mucous membrane, as well as the space
occupied by the areolar tissue, are stretched or pouched by the
inflammatory product.
My observation forces me to conclude that the inflammatory product
imprisoned in the areolar meshes, between the mucous membrane and the
muscular layers, is the principal factor in forming piles and the
channels so often found in the same region. Of course, obstructed
circulation, congested veins, capillaries, and arterioles, and a more
or less apparent varicose condition, increase the size of the pile
tumors and the general thickness of the mucous membrane over the region
affected by the disease.
The process occasioning the separation of the mucous membrane from its
areolar attachment or bed often extends the whole length of the rectum,
giving the mucous membrane the loose and raised appearance that a piece
of thin silk would have if laid on over that surface. The fatty or
areolar tissue under the skin about the anus suffers likewise by being
destroyed, leaving a hollow cavity or a large channel of great length
under the skin. The separation of the mucous membrane and integument
about the anus from their areolar attachment permits of prolapse of the
mucous membrane and integument that form the anal canal and skin around
the orifice.
It would seem that the channels, pile sacs, and cavities serve as
temporary reservoirs for the inflammatory product, a portion of which
the system absorbs and another portion of which escapes through the
mucous membrane and integument. In escaping in this way it occasions
itching and pain. The itching or soreness does not in all cases extend
throughout the whole length of the channel. A few inches of the channel
farthest from its origin may be the seat of the greatest disturbance,
and the sufferer and physician alike are usually unaware that the
source of the trouble is in the tissues of the anus and rectum.
The marked improvement in the health of those that have been cured of
both the morbid condition produced by the inflammatory product and the
cause of that condition is evidence that the general vitality of the
system had been greatly lowered, even though the most annoying of the
symptoms, such as piles, itching, or acute pain, had not been present.
The lack of annoyance along the channel for a certain period may be due
to a limited production, or to a rapid absorption of the inflammatory
product by the system.
Proctitis and the attendant symptoms just described have been
overlooked by the medical profession. Physicians have confined their
attention to two symptoms--piles and fistula. After undergoing a
surgical operation for these, the patient is considered cured. What
ignorance, or rather short-sightedness, to remove only the annoying
symptom, and then to pronounce the patient healed! Let me ask my
professional brethren why they do not concern themselves with the
underlying _cause_ of the symptom or symptoms, and whether they suppose
this cause is going out of business. Surely it is a grave mistake to
concern one’s self with the leading symptom merely--to remove that,
and to leave its cause intact. When the disease-producing cause remains
to generate its poisonous effects in the system, opportunities exist
for further symptoms to develop.
The system may be already depleted of vitality, and the harsh treatment
for the purpose of removing a mere symptom may only make the sufferer’s
condition more deplorable--if it does not indeed cause death.
There are other symptoms of proctitis than piles and fistula, which
remain after the conventional surgical operation for their removal.
Obstipation and constipation are usually symptoms of proctitis, and
will persist until the inflammation in the upper half of the rectum and
sometimes in a portion of the sigmoid flexure is cured.
The victim of proctitis has two marked sources of poisoning of the
system: one proceeding from the absorption of the inflammatory product,
and the other from undue retention of the waste matter of the body that
should pass out by the lower bowel.
Inflammation of a mucous membrane causes structural changes in the
tissues involved in the morbid process, and not infrequently it becomes
the seat of a malignant disease.
The reader may be familiar with the white, loose, alveolar
(honeycomb-like) network of elastic tissue (called fat) just under the
skin and mucous membrane. Consult in this connection the cut on page 24.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.
Male pelvic organs viewed from the right side (the right ilium and a
portion of the ischium and the pubic bone, together with their soft
parts, have been removed). 1, auricular surface of the sacrum; 2,
tuberosity of the sacrum; 3, ischium; 4, pubic bone; 5, psoas muscle;
6, erector spinal muscle; 7, glutei muscles; 8, obdurator muscles;
9, external sphincter of anus; 10, rectum; 11, sigmoid flexure; 12,
bladder; 13, ureter; 14, vas deferens; 15, seminal vesicles; 16,
prostate; 20, lateral vesicle ligaments; 21, hypo-gastric artery; 22,
hypo-gastric vein; 23, external iliac artery; 24, abdominal aorta.
(Boas.)]
The abdominal and pelvic organs are cushioned or held in place
somewhat by the network of fatty tissue that surrounds them, and
the rectum is no exception to the rule. The outer or serous wall is
surrounded by an abundance of loose areolar tissue, which is divided
into cellular spaces. When this tissue also is invaded by inflammation,
the condition is spoken of as periproctitis; and we have a result
somewhat similar to that which occurs in the areolar tissue just under
the mucous membrane and integument, as previously described.
As the inflammatory product is discharged into this spongy or fatty
connective tissue it is slowly forced in some direction, which is
naturally downward, if not too much obstructed by firm tissue; at all
events, it follows the line of least resistance and forms usually quite
a large channel and several cavities along its course. The channel may
begin at an elevation of four or more inches on the outside of the
rectum (Fig. 5). Should it form in front of the rectum, the seminal
vesicles (15) and the prostate gland (16) would suffer greatly by its
presence.
As the inflammatory process burrows its way downward, it finally
reaches the soft fatty connective tissue under the skin. It then
continues along this in one or more directions for a distance of two or
more inches. Several of these long, large pus-less channels may exist
for many years, or for a lifetime, without sufficient evidence of their
existence along their route accurately to locate them. Itching, pain,
and color of the skin often indicate the presence of such a channel
under the integument. The author has frequently found large channels
extending up along the outer rectal wall for four inches, and extending
out into the deep tissues of the buttocks in various directions,
without making their presence and ravages known to the victim.
Such numerous pathological conditions have led the author to conclude
that an abscess just under the skin and the discharge of pus are merely
incidents in the history of such maladies. Think of it: your body may
be bored with channels or holes of varying diameters and lengths, while
you yourself may be ignorant of what is occurring! The mucous membrane
may be lifted from the connective tissue for the whole length of the
rectum, and the skin about the anus may also be in this condition. You
know that your health is not good, but you are ignorant of the cause.
The formation of pus at some period of the channel’s inroads, or of
an abscess, would seem a kindly act of Nature, for the presence of so
serious a disturber to health would thus become known.
I have not overdrawn this picture of periproctitis and of submucous
tissue channels. The victims could scarcely be worse off than they are.
I want boys and girls, young men and young women, to learn the facts
concerning the local dangers of proctitis; for, when they once realize
the seriousness of this disease because of its many grave symptoms,
they will give it proper attention before these effects manifest
themselves. You cannot neglect so important a portion of your body as
the anus and rectum and not seriously endanger the organs that lie
close to them. No wonder so many men are troubled with inflammation
and induration of the prostate gland. The percentage of such cases
would be greatly reduced were proctitis and periproctitis denied the
existence they now enjoy for years, and often for a lifetime.
In view of all that has been advanced concerning these local
pathological conditions, is it strange that almost everybody is
constipated, and that we need some simple sovereign aid to further the
scientific treatment of the physician--an aid such as the enema has
proved to be?
CHAPTER IV.
UNDUE RETENTION OF GAS AND FECES IN THE SIGMOID FLEXURE.
In the previous chapters attention was called especially to the
lower portion of the rectum and the anus. In this chapter we will
consider the sigmoid flexure, which, when diseased, is often dilated,
dislocated, and depressed, a pathological condition somewhat similar to
that found in the lower portion of the rectum and the anus.
The illustration on page 29 shows the normal relations of the rectum
and the sigmoid flexure; also the whole colon. 7 marks the beginning of
the sigmoid flexure, and 6 its upper end. The reader will note the four
sharp curves or flexures of this organ,--from 6 to 7,--which forms in
health a normal and most convenient receptacle for feces, and which,
like the bladder, can be emptied at regular intervals.
Unless the system were able in some way to eliminate the waste and
poisonous matter it had generated within six hours, it would fatally
poison itself.
Those internal ventilators, the lungs, and those external ducts,
the pores, are constantly at work purifying the body; and they are
actively assisted by the kidneys and the bladder. Observation extending
over many years of practice induces me to believe that among those who
suffer from chronic constipation two-thirds to three-fourths of the
fecal mass is taken into the system and eliminated by the kidneys,
mucous membrane, and skin. Diseases of the above organs are numerous
and seemingly incurable from the fact that their common cause has not
been discovered and treated properly. Were it not for these organs
steadily at work, the labor of the bowels would be of little avail.
But while the importance of the former cannot be ignored, it must be
conceded that the most important of all the eliminating organs are the
bowels, for their function is to discharge not only the waste solids
but also a great amount of waste liquids and gases as well.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.
9. The anus. Levator ani muscle seen on each side. 8, 8. The rectum.
7. Beginning of the rectum. 6. The sigmoid flexure. 5. The descending
colon. 4. The transverse colon. 3. The cæcum, or _caput coli_. 2.
Appendicula vermiformis. 1. The end of the ileum.]
Undue fermentation of the ingesta (the aliment taken into the system)
generates poisons of more or less virulence; it must therefore be
obvious that a clean intestinal canal is necessary after every meal to
further the normal digestive process.
Very often the outlet of the sigmoid flexure is obstructed. Figures 6
and 7 are shown to make the cause of this obstruction more clear. In
Figure 7 we see the longitudinal and transverse fibers that form the
wall of the rectum. In all cases of chronic obstipation, the muscular
structure of the anus, rectum, and frequently of a portion of the
sigmoid flexure is invaded with chronic inflammation of a very severe
and serious character.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.
A view of the longitudinal muscular fibers of a section of the
rectum: 2, upper portion of the rectum; 3, 4, 5, the three bands of
longitudinal fibers of the colon continued upon the rectum; 6, the
longitudinal muscular fibers of the rectum formed by the expansion of
those of the colon. A view of the muscular coat of the colon: 1, 1, one
of the bands of longitudinal muscular fibers; 2,2, the circular fibers
of the muscular coat.]
What is the result of this inflammation? Self-evidently contraction of
the muscular structure, as you would quickly enough discover were one
of your hands or arms inflamed.
Though constant attention should be given to the much more important
organ, the rectum, practically none is given it. “Out of sight, out of
mind.”
Again, no doctor would diagnose an inflamed limb as paralysis, atony,
etc., and dose the victim with nux vomica, tonics, physic, etc., in the
hope of thereby healing it. Yet, with singular fatuity, this absurd
diagnosis and treatment is given when the lower bowel is invaded with
chronic inflammation.
Let the common-sense reader inform himself concerning his organism. Let
him remember that he has within muscular organs that demand exactly the
same attention when diseased as those without. This fact is especially
important for the sufferer from constipation or semi-constipation to
know.
Were the anus, rectum, and sigmoid flexure one continuous straight
tube, the muscular action in the process of defecation would not be
as complex as it is, since then the feces would drop right down and
out. But these parts have so many curves and angles that when disease
invades their interior they accentuate their folds and valves by
contracting and do not readily respond to the nerve demand for complex,
muscular, snakelike movements, when evacuation is desired. In this
unreadiness to respond they cast into confusion all the functions of
the whole complicated organism, all parts of which are necessarily
interdependent. A wise provision of Mother Nature are these curves,
angles, and valves, for they prevent the sudden dropping of the
contents of the colon down to the anal orifice--a possibility that
would greatly embarrass us during social and business hours.
The accompanying figure shows the rectum dissected at its upper end
from the sigmoid flexure. This portion of the rectum is smaller than
the lower two-thirds of the organ. Now, it is this lessened diameter
of the gut that is an aid to the sigmoid flexure in its capacity as a
receptacle, but a most decided hindrance when it is diseased--since
it will positively inhibit the passage of feces and gases, thereby
occasioning a distention of the sigmoid flexure (obstipation) because
of a detention of the contents, which then weights the flexure down
upon the rectum. Thus we see exemplified how an aid may turn into a
hindrance, as we already have observed, in an unduly contracted anal
vent.
The _rectum_ is not straight, as the word itself would indicate, but
curves to the right, then back well on to the spine, and then forward
to the anus, which turns slightly backward from the lower anterior
portion of the rectum.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
When these muscular-tube organs are invaded by disease, these very
curves, valves, and bends of anus, rectum, and sigmoid flexure are
responsible for at least nine-tenths of the ills that affect humanity
from the cradle to the grave--ills directly due to self-poisoning,
technically known as auto-infection and auto-intoxication, the
fashionable name of which is neurasthenia: a weakening of involuntary
and voluntary nervous systems through lack of vent from irritating
poisons, flatulency, and of course defective metabolism or nutrition. A
better name would be _vaso-motor neurasthenia_.
After these anatomical and physiological points have been noted, it is
to be hoped that the reader has grasped the idea of how easily this
portion of the bowels, when diseased, can prevent the normal descent of
the feces and gases accumulated just above the diseased portion of the
gut. It should also be easy to understand how a portion of the unduly
retained feces may pass out, but in so doing be the cause of increased
irritation and consequent contraction of the muscular tube, preventing
thus any further passage of feces from its receptacle. Usually a
portion of the escaping feces is caught and held in the rectum itself,
converting the rectum into a receptacle.
It is just here that the practical application of the principles
deduced must come in. Let my professional brethren as well as all
victims of bowel disease consider the following question, and then all
will be clear: Since normal feces contain about 75 per cent. water,
is there any harm, nay, is there not decided benefit, in suddenly
liquefying the imprisoned mass to, say, 99 per cent.--whether disease
exist or not?
When disease exists we simply desire to open the contracted or
obstructed canal. What can be better, in a therapeutic line, than the
kindly distending influence of warm water to overcome the spasmodic
closure of the diseased tube? In addition to the gentle dilatation the
injected water occasions, the water creates or calls into activity the
lost nervous impulse to evacuate, which impulse is a step toward the
restoration of the lost normality.
Under the benignant influence of the water injected in the large
intestine there comes a desire to expel it, which, when responded to,
carries with it the feces so long imprisoned, and at the same time
divests the walls of the intestine of the inevitable incrustations.
Thus, with purifying water, the foul pool is emptied, and the parts are
cleansed so thoroughly that nothing is left to vex the inflamed tissue.
Is there any sane person that can offer one valid objection to the
use of depuratory enemas in cases in which the normal function of
the bowels is lost through abnormal changes brought about by chronic
disease?
CHAPTER V.
REBELLION OF OUR OUTRAGED INTERNAL ECONOMY.
The small intestine is that portion of the alimentary canal which
begins at the stomach and ends at the large intestine. Its usual length
is twenty feet. The diameter, which at the upper portion (duodenum) is
two inches, gradually becomes less, until at the lower end it is but
one inch.
Now, the length of the inner coat of this small intestine--the mucous
membrane--is about _double_ that of the intestine itself. Think of
wearing a coat twice as long as yourself! How do you think this is
accomplished in the case of the muscular tube under consideration?
Well, Nature, having a most peculiar function to perform, has thrown
this mucous coat or tube into a thousand folds (valvulæ conniventes, or
“winking valves”). These folds form valves, occupying from one-third
to one-half the circumference of the bowel. The greatest width of each
fold is at the center, where it measures from a quarter to half an
inch. Over this great expanse of mucous membrane we find studded ten
million five hundred thousand intestinal villi, whose office it is to
absorb the food substances in their passage through the canal.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
Stomach, liver, small intestine, etc. (Flint.) 1, inferior surface of
the liver; 2, round ligament of the liver; 3, gall-bladder; 4, superior
surface of the right lobe of the liver; 5, diaphragm; 6, lower portion
of the œsophagus; 7, stomach; 8, gastro-hepatic omentum; 9, spleen;
10, gastro-splenic omentum; 11, duodenum; 12, 12, small intestine; 13,
cæcum; 14, appendix vermiformis; 15, 15, transverse colon; 16, sigmoid
flexure of the colon; 17, urinary bladder.]
Those that have observed the anatomical illustrations of the small
intestines must have been struck by their apparently inextricably
tangled convolutions. In life, these convolutions are constantly
changing their locations, as though they were a mass of worms.
The large intestine begins at the cæcum and extends to the anus, or
vent of the intestinal sewer. It is called the colon--the ascending,
transverse, and descending colon. It is about five feet in length.
Its diameter is the greatest at the cæcum, where it measures, when
moderately distended, two and a half to three and a half inches. Beyond
the cæcum the diameter is one and two-thirds to two and two-thirds
inches, the smallest part being at the upper end of the rectum.
The muscular movements of the large intestine are much more limited in
number and range than those of the small intestines. The area of its
mucous membrane is also much less, notwithstanding the fact that it is
thrown into sacculated pouches, or sacculi, by the contraction of the
longitudinal muscular bands of the bowel.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.
The cæcum, dorso-mesial view, showing the ileum-side of the ileo-cæcal
valve, and the beginning of the three muscular ribbons. (Gerrish.)]
Consider this tube, for it is really unique. Note the longitudinal
muscular bands (Figs. 12 and 13). We find this tube to be five feet
long when the surface made by the circular bands is measured, and four
feet long when that made by the longitudinal bands is measured. Now,
the four feet of surface must of course contract the five feet. Well,
in the tube under consideration, the musculo-areolo mucous tube is
thrown into circular puckerings in short sections, between which are
deep transverse creases, each bounded by prominent bulges. (Fig. 13.)
An inspection of the bore of the tube shows a sharp ridge corresponding
to each depression of the outer surface, and a large recess collocated
with each external protrusion. This external and internal appearance of
the large intestine reminds one somewhat of the flexible hard-rubber
tubing used as a conduit for electric wire in houses.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.
Cavity of the cæcum, its front wall having been cut away. The ileocæcal
valve and the opening of the appendix are shown. (Gerrish.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
A view of the position and curvatures of the large intestine. 32, end
of the ileum; 31, appendix vermiformis; 4, cæcum; 3, ascending, 2,
transverse, 8, descending colon; 9, 9, 9, sigmoid flexure; 10, 10,
rectum; 12, anus; 13, 13, bladder; 11, 11, 11, peritoneum--length from
4 to 6 feet, and a mean diameter of about 1-2/3 to 2-2/3 inches. The
sigmoid flexure is a receptacle for the feces, and each end is the
highest and bent on itself; this arrangement spares the rectum and
sphincters of pressure and weight until the proper time to stool.]
The sacculated pouches thus formed by the shortening of the bowel may
become abnormally distended, and resemble the proper receptacle for
feces--the sigmoid flexure. Even the rectum, in cases of chronic
constipation, is usually enormously distended, owing to the overloading
or filling up of the bowel with feces.
I have given this somewhat lengthy _résumé_ in order to enable the
reader to appreciate a most pertinent question.
Let us see what we have found: The small intestine, with its manifold
folds and its numerous pockets, made by the forty feet of mucous
membrane; the bends and curves in the five feet of the large intestine,
with its numerous dams and pools; and, lastly, the abnormal reservoirs
for feces, liquids, and gases.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
Segment of large intestine, showing the characteristic features of its
structure. (Gerrish.)]
Finding this, the question inevitably is, What is the best agent for
cleansing this marvelously sensitive canal, twenty-five feet long,
whose mucous membrane extends forty-five feet? No one would think of
taking, if he could, the foul sewer in his hands, and shaking it, fold
upon fold, with the faint yet fond hope of sterilizing it. How can any
mode of physical culture meet the requirements for effecting a cure of
ulcerative proctitis and colitis, to say nothing about keeping the
bowels sweet and clean? Chronic, subacute, and acute inflammation,
accompanied with ulceration, located in any part of the body, requires
rest to overcome the fever and congestion. Muscular exercise irritates
and inflames the diseased parts.
Another form of “physical culture” would put into the bowels all
sorts of stuff that cannot be digested, such as bran, crushed seeds,
shells, raw food, etc., that set up excessive muscular action and
secretion of mucus as the improper stuff passes down and out. In the
sacred name of hygiene, this new cathartic remedy is prescribed and
taken. Seeking relief from the painful effects, the patient finds that
these “remedies” make the disease and its symptoms worse. Hygienic
fool-killers are, like the poor, always with us.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.
A longitudinal section of the end of the small intestines, or ileum,
and of the beginning of the large intestines, or colon. 1, 1, a
portion of the ascending colon; 2, 2, the cæcum, or caput coli; 3,
3, lower portion of the ileum; 4, 4, the muscular coat, covered by
the peritoneum; 5, 5, the cellular and mucous coats; 6, 6, folds of
the mucous coat at this end of the colon; 7, 7, prolongations of the
cellular coat into these folds; 8, 8, ileo colic valve; 9, 9, the union
of the coats of the ileum and colon.]
You are aware of the irritation that a grain of sand will set up when
it comes in contact with the mucous membrane of the eye. Then can you
not realize that you will torment the forty-five feet of intestinal
mucous membrane with like indigestible stuff? It is estimated that ten
per cent. of the really suitable food is residue matter with which the
digestive tract has to deal and get rid of with as much economy and as
little friction as possible. Then why increase this residue twenty or
fifty per cent.?
More than nine-tenths of the human race have been content to depend
on comparatively violent excitants, such as drugs, coarse food, and
muscular exercise, etc., to relieve the bowels of the feces, liquids,
and gases of a most foul character--the foulness due to putrid
fermentation and undue retention.
When will these prescribers and partakers ever learn that bile bouncers
and peristaltic persuaders have an immense journey before them when
they start to remove the foul accumulation of feces from the sigmoid
flexure and ballooned rectum? For, be it remembered, the normal
receptacle for feces is twenty-four feet four inches from the stomach,
and the abnormal receptacle twenty-four feet eleven inches--within two
inches of the vent of the body!
Surely quite a degree of mental constipation must have existed in
both the prescribers and the partakers to think such thick and dense
thoughts as are represented by these bouncers and persuaders. So
you would _cleanse_ the bowels with such unclean, poisonous, and
irritating things! What amazing hope born of ignorance! Outraged Nature
cries: “How long! how long! how long will my ‘inards’ be so abused
in the name of cleanliness and yet remain so unclean? Ye benighted
mortals, if ye would listen to me, your Mother, I would give ye a
pure and wholesome prescription, for I would prescribe equal parts of
enlightenment and water well mixed, and advise ye to take a portion of
it fore and a portion of it aft, per os (mouth) and per anus. Thus and
thus alone would I prescribe for ye; such and such alone is the way for
ye to do; purify to cure, or cure by purifying.”
Constipation must not continue, for it means not only the clogging up
of the large intestine with the foul sewage of the system, but also
the drying of that sewage, which latter process implies the absorption
of poison. Now that you are in this condition, Medicus steps up and
prescribes a cathartic mixed with belladonna or opium, or both. These
latter are meant to quiet the mournful cry of outraged Nature when the
cathartic invades its sacred precincts. And it may be noted, by the
way, that though belladonna, atropine, morphia, etc., tend to dry up
the secretions of the mucous membrane and make matters worse by making
them still more arid, still the action of the cathartic is usually so
powerful that after the free fight with the pain soothers it triumphs,
and produces a free flow of watery secretion into the dried, impacted
mass of the bowel.
Does it not stand to reason that the greater portion of the liquid in
which the feces were dissolved and had fermented is re-absorbed into
the system? Why should the poor victim of proctitis and cathartics
wonder why he has gout, rheumatism, and disease of the kidneys,
bladder, lungs, liver, stomach, nerves; why he has neurasthenia,
debility, feebleness, loss of memory, inability to fix and hold the
attention upon a single line of thought, apprehensions, etc.? His
wonder is childish, for deep in his heart he knows that he poisoned
himself. He knows this, but it seems that he must be reminded of the
fact that there is a better way to remove the accumulated mass from the
large intestine, and to prevent in future the undue retention of feces,
liquids, and gases in abnormal sacs or pouches. The way that Nature
prescribes is the resort daily, two or three times, to the enema.
When the injected water reaches the imprisoned and dried feces, the
crust is loosened from its holdings and the mass is moved toward the
exit by the expulsive effort of the bowels. Previously the bowels were
helpless with their load. As the sudden flood of water is expelled
it carries with it the inspissated feces; whereupon the subconscious
personal Ego, who is the superintendent of the digestive apparatus and
functions, congratulates himself on the delightfully refreshing manner
in which the local disturber has been ousted.
Such is the satisfactory decision of the arbitrator--Enlightened
Nature. No longer need we bow to Medicus or to any other kind of
“cuss,” whether styled hygiene or physical culture. Arbitration of this
sort makes life worth living.
Now for Nature’s benediction: “May that feeling of freedom from
uncleanliness, internal and external, be with you constantly, and this
double blessing make your joys flow so fast that in their rapidity they
blend into a sun and radiate from your rejuvenated physical being.”
CHAPTER VI.
GASEOUS OBESITY AND OUR ROLY-POLIES.
Is there any human being so ignorant that he cannot understand that
when food stuffs in the gastro-intestinal canal ferment and putrefy
they thereby generate toxic (poisonous) gaseous matter, volatile fatty
acids, and putrid feces; that such matter, acids, and feces are rapidly
absorbed by the system, and that, if the system does not readily
eliminate them by way of the bowels, kidneys, and mucous membrane, they
will tend to bring on one or more forms of acute or chronic disease?
Gas is matter in its most rarefied state--a state that permits its
easy entrance into all the tissues of the body, where it perverts by
its presence and toxic effect the normal function of all the organs.
Besides its poisonous infection, it distends or bloats the stomach,
bowels, and tissues--a fact especially noticeable in the abdominal
region, giving the appearance of corpulency or obesity to many,
when really it is only abdominal ballooning or gaseous obeseness.
Roly-polies--and there are a great many of them--will have their pride
greatly hurt by accounting for their condition in this way, but the
truth must be told and they might as well face the facts first as
last. Gaseous obesity, or borborygmus, is spoken of popularly as wind
in the stomach and bowels. No wonder the roly-poly is sensitive on the
subject, for this “wind” occasions rumbling sounds, eructations, and
offensive odors--all of which are a great annoyance to the sufferer
from dilated, displaced, and unclean digestive apparatus.
Besides being generated in the system, gases may be swallowed during
the act of eating, in the form of air (oxygen and nitrogen), and in
liquids containing carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, etc.
Micro-organisms swallowed with the food will occasion fermentation of
the contents of the stomach and bowels, which if unduly retained become
excessive, foul, and toxic--therefore extremely harmful to the system.
The gases generated in the stomach are the following: carbonic acid,
hydrogen, hydrochloric, ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, marsh gas, etc.
They are partly absorbed or thrown off by eructations, or they pass
into the duodenum or small intestine.
Gases are found throughout the small and the large intestine. These are
the result of both the normal and the abnormal digestive fermentation
and bacterial decomposition of the ingesta or food stuffs. Some of the
gases are passed into the intestines from the blood by diffusion.
The production of gas is more copious in the upper portion of the
small intestine and becomes less rapid and abundant as the large
intestine is reached. As formed or found in the intestines, the gases
are: carbonic acid, hydrogen, marsh, ammonia, nitrogen, sulphuretted
hydrogen, and sulphate of ammonia.
Considering the large amount of abnormal gases generated in the bowels
and which abnormally distend the abdominal walls for several inches and
press upon the heart and lungs, and considering the small amount passed
out as flatus, their entrance into the tissues of the body must be very
rapid and harmful.
Stop the habitual putrefaction and mal-digestion, and then the
formation of toxic feces, gases, and volatile acid will speedily cease.
Then the erstwhile roly-polies will shrink in circumference four or
more inches, necessitating the refitting of their garments to the new
and better order of things.
Much has been written about the distention of the rectum, sigmoid
flexure, and colon from the undue accumulation of feces. The fecal
distention of the gut may extend along the intestine for from three
to nine inches or more, which is a very grave matter indeed. But why
is so much attention given to a few inches of impacted feces dilating
a portion of the bowel, and none whatever to the prevention or
elimination of gaseous matter that distends the whole gastro-intestinal
canal to such an extent that the body is tightly inflated and the
median parts of the belly bulge out like a balloon?
Cattle raisers are conversant with the gaseous inflation of their
animals, and have to resort to the knife to puncture the stomach to
permit the gas to escape; otherwise fatal results would soon follow.
Some animals, even, like most human beings, are intemperate in eating.
When they consume too much grass they suffer from flatulency and colic,
and require drastic treatment.
Rather than let some worthy men and women die, ought we not at times to
adopt the ranchman’s treatment for flatus? This harsh means, however,
might be avoided by inventive science. Overfed, constipated, inflated
man, victim of habitual flatulency, could easily have small gas valves
inserted here and there along his gastro-intestinal canal--one, say, to
relieve the stomach of toxic gas, another for the appendix region, and
still another in the hernial region of the abdomen. Suppose overfeeders
were to adopt the gas-valve fad, and discontinue the habit of using
cathartics, soda, charcoal, peppermint, pepsin, whiskey, etc., as means
of relief! How in the world can a _drug_ aid digestion when taken into
a foul, gaseous, and feces-clogged canal?
A chemist cannot get the definite results he seeks unless he have
the right chemicals and proper vessels. Just so with the spiritual
Ego and his systemic chemistry of food: he needs a clean and healthy
digestive apparatus for proper assimilation and elimination. But he
gets careless, allows it to get foul, and then insincerely expresses
astonishment that the chemical combinations are not such as one could
wish or expect. Other chemists, called doctors or druggists, come along
and dose the poor victim of his own carelessness until they have ruined
his apparatus completely. They have got to live, of course; and it is
their business to see that he does not escape so long as they can help
it.
Sometimes there is a reassertion of common sense; the poor victim
becomes disgusted with himself and his credulous acceptance of
the doctor’s dictation and his fatuous swilling of the druggist’s
decoctions. He gets tired of chronic ill-health and bowel troubles,
and, lo and behold! he does the simplest and most sensible thing in
the world--a thing he ought to have done at the very start, or before
he ever had the least trouble: He thoroughly washes out his alimentary
canal with pure or antiseptic water. He drinks a lot of pure spring
water, and he flushes his bowels with two or three enemas. Doctors and
drugs are henceforth banished; he gets well! What a blessing to lose
one’s faith in the magic of drugs and the majesty of doctors!
Few comprehend the baneful effects of flatulency on the system, the
most usual of which are fatigue, depression, headache, buzzing in
the ears, deafness, vertigo, loss of memory, inability to fix the
attention, disturbance of sight, drowsiness, etc. A continuous stream
of carbonic acid or of hydrogen directed against muscular tissue will
cause paralysis of the part.
Physicians admit that in certain portions of the alimentary canal
extensive dilatation may occur, independent of any permanent
obstruction, in the lumen, or bore, of the gut. As a rule, however,
victims of proctitis and colitis suffer from more or less occlusion of
the lumen in the region invaded by the ulcerative inflammatory process.
Considering that the wall of the abdomen is often greatly extended by
gas within the digestive apparatus, it is not amiss to assume that this
gas may cause local distention of segments of the gastro-intestinal
canal, sufficient to paralyze or render inoperative the parts.
Suppose we make a rubber duplicate of the abdominal walls of the
average man, and place therein rubber duplicates of all the internal
vital organs--pelvic and abdominal. To hold the stomach, bowels,
and other organs in place, we fasten them with elastic bands here
and there, and make a generous use of cotton to support the various
parts, which are all connected with many little circulating tubes,
with strings for the greater nerves, etc. Now let us distend our thin
artificial digestive apparatus with air or gas--snugly filling the
abdominal space of our model, without tension, however, or slackness of
the various parts, which are happily adjusted and at rest. Now, be it
remembered, persons suffering from flatulency are more or less in the
predicament of the gluttonous animal referred to above: the gas will
not escape at either end, however much of an effort it makes, or the
victim may make to help it.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.
The stomach and intestines, front view, the great omentum having been
removed and the liver turned up and to the right. The dotted line shows
the normal position of the anterior border of the liver. The arrow
points to the foramen of Winslow. (Gerrish.)]
In filling very slowly our thin artificial alimentary canal, note
the distention along the canal as the gas accumulates. Then note that
the elastic bands stretch as the various segments of the canal change
location, especially the stomach and portions of the small intestine
and of the colon, etc. The stomach, small intestine, and colon, as they
dilate, shift about for room. The abdomen is seen to bulge out some
four or more inches while the turmoil is heard going on inside.
Continue this inflation and our rubber intestinal tract will display
here and there a displacement and permanent abnormal enlargement
of the lumen or bore. Suppose, further, that our complete model of
the abdominal viscera and wall had tightly around its outer surface
unelastic corsets, skirt bands, trouser bands, vests, etc., all or any
of which held in or compressed its bulging wall--what would happen?
Why, something inside would slip out of place or burst and let all the
wind escape, relegating our creation to the rubbish heap.
Now, when a man loses his wind by the rupture of a tube, he is said to
have expired, and his body is sent to the crematory--or ought to be
sent there for sanitary reasons. It would be much more satisfactory, by
the way, to our friends, after our demise, were our bodies sterilized
while they “live.”
I hope I have made it clear that it is a most serious pathological
condition--inasmuch as it prevents the normal onward progress of
ingesta and feces--to permit of the continued existence of an
excessively dilated gastro-intestinal canal, with one or more of its
segments permanently enlarged--segments like the stomach, duodenum,
cæcum, transverse colon, sigmoid flexure, rectum, etc.--and with
pendulous abdomen, sallow and muddy complexion, etc.
When to this condition is added a general displacement of the abdominal
viscera, or of one or more of the organs of the abdominal and pelvic
cavities, you have an objective picture of chronic ill health in all
its severity.
Are you sincerely desirous to know how your friends feel when you greet
them? Don’t ask them the stereotyped question, “How do you do?” or, if
you are a German, “How do you go it?” or, if you are a Frenchman, “How
do you carry yourself?” But ask them the specific and sensible question
appropriate to our civilized habits: “How are you and your bowels
to-day?” And at parting it were well to say: “May peace be with you
both--you and your bowels!”
The spirit of man can torment his personality, and his personality in
turn can vex his spirit.
Few people are aware of the fact that the stomach and intestines can
undergo alteration in position. Many are familiar with the fact that
the kidneys may be displaced, and are then called “floating kidneys”;
that the liver, pancreas, spleen, and uterus occasionally go on
excursions, causing thereby considerable and numerous disturbances.
And it is not at all strange that they should, since there is so much
pressure from within, so much pressure downward, and so much pressure
from without--all through the requirements of fashion, indulgence,
and ignorance. But the stomach, upper portion of the duodenum, and
small intestine, cæcum, the ascending colon, and especially the
transverse colon and sigmoid flexure, are susceptible to various
forms of displacement, inhibiting the ready flow or passage of food
stuffs, gases, and feces from one segment of the digestive apparatus to
another, until the vent is reached.
Reviewing the ground already gone over, we have found that proctitis,
as a rule, is the primary cause of sigmoiditis and colitis; that
these combined are the cause of constipation; that this is the
cause of indigestion, flatulency, and distended alimentary canal,
and, as matters go from bad to worse, of permanent distentions and
displacement. Is it any wonder then that there are so many that suffer
from _gastro-intestinal neurasthenia_?
Surely our digestive apparatus ought to have as much attention as a
well-regulated house furnace. In the morning the ashes are dumped and
fresh coal is put on. A similar process is gone through with at noon
and night. Some may run their furnaces on two meals a day and two
dumpings of the waste material.
When a boy puts a penny into a slot machine he gets what he expects
and is pleased. The machine has done its work in delivering the goods.
Why should he give a thought where his penny lodged? In like manner
man is always ready to put food stuff, and other stuff as well, into
the upper slot of his machine, for he gets immediately satisfaction
thereby. But he is like the boy; he doesn’t care a fig what becomes
of the stuff so long as it doesn’t annoy him too much. Eventually the
machine refuses to work, and seems unable to deliver the goods at the
other end; something has become clogged or out of gear. Let me advise
the reader at least to keep the passage clear by dumping the systemic
furnace twice or thrice daily--using the enema to effect the result.
CHAPTER VII.
IRRIGATION OF THE ASSIMILATIVE AND ELIMINATIVE ORGANS.
The habits of people in general do not seem so bad when one considers
the average individual’s limitations as to knowledge and thought. The
fact is that most people don’t know, don’t think, and hence don’t
care. Let them read more science, think more sensibly, and act more
seriously; then their habits will be more satisfactory.
The alimentary receptacle--the stomach or vat in which foods and
liquids are received and mixed--is habitually converted by many persons
into a chemical retort for all sorts of drugs and remedies, with the
view of reaching and relieving the ills of the various organs of the
body, from dandruff to corns. The writer believes that he can give
more and better reasons for his confidence in the therapeutic value of
remedies than most other physicians, but he wishes to emphasize here
the transcendent importance of common sense in their administration.
Before and above all else, however, what is wanted is a clean
gastro-intestinal canal; and his claim is that water, properly used, is
the best agent to effect that cleansing. On a par with this canal in
importance are the eliminative tissues and organs of the system: the
kidneys, mucous membrane, and skin. What therapeutic agent, properly
used, is better than water? After all the assimilative and eliminative
organs and tissues have been thoroughly rinsed with pure, soft water,
then, if it be still necessary to administer a chemical agent, one
may be selected that will, with these organs and tissues in better
condition, work wonders. If you are so foolish as to allow yourself
to become foul from head to foot, cleanse yourself with water before
resorting to chemical aids.
Somehow or other the mass of even intelligent people, not to speak of
the great mass of the ignorant, and I may add even my co-workers in the
healing art, are not aware of the supreme want and worth of water for
internal and external therapeutic purposes; they do not realize how the
stomach, the bowels, and the kidneys cry for it in their neglected and
infected condition.
The stomach serves as a convenient receptacle to dump things into after
the palate has been entertained and pleased--and about everything is
swallowed but pure, soft water. As a rule the stomach takes very kindly
to water. It is, moreover, not so piggish as to absorb it all and leave
its surface in a foul condition, covered with ropy, slimy products
of imperfect digestion. Immediately after deglutition of water, the
stomach does just what it ought to do: its muscles contract and dump
the contents of the stomach into the duodenum, where the principal act
of digestion is accomplished.
As its name implies, the stomach (stow-make) is a receptacle made for
the purpose of storing stuffs for nutrition. Here they are mixed and
broken up somewhat, and then deposited in the second or real digestive
apparatus--the duodenum. This latter organ requires water and organic
fluids in liberal quantities for its digestive operations. Both organs
need cleansing after they have finished their work, and the digestive
and assimilative vessels require water, not only to convey the building
material to their harbors, but also to eliminate effectually the
worn-out tissues and the residuals of the digestive process.
It has been said that were man to discover heaven (a clean and healthy
locality) he would at once convert it into a hell (a vile and filthy
one). Man is possessed of an organism of whose constituent elements
water forms over eighty per cent. The alvine discharges ought to
contain the same percentage of water, if not more. The mucous membrane
and skin, to be kept clean, soft, fresh, plump, moist, and free from
odors, require their appropriate irrigation. Man may keep himself
clean, both inside and out, by irrigating himself before each meal
daily. The well-watered and well-washed body and brain constitute a
heaven on earth for the indwelling spirit that needs these for its
manifestation.
It does seem sometimes that man in his ignorance gets nothing right
except to walk forward instead of backward. Even so, most likely he
walked on all fours for ages, judging from his progress to date,
before he learned to walk on his hind legs. To-day we find him
self-poisoned, auto-intoxicated, a gastro-intestinal neurasthenic. His
bowels are filled and stretched with ancient feces and gases, and his
stomach is burdened with undigested food and tenacious mucus.
The average man’s scanty excreta from the bowels are dry, hard, lumpy,
and foul, exhaling a noxious odor; and these excretions may be passed
once a day, or once in two or three days, or with some persons too
often, should diarrhea supervene. Two-thirds to three-fourths of the
fecal mass is absorbed by the system every day; and this absorption
is accompanied more or less constantly by symptoms of indigestion,
biliousness, uric acid, and many other distressful conditions.
His breath and the exhalations of a garbage-can are much alike; in fact
they are twins, the only difference between the human and metallic
receptacles being that one is capable of walking and the other is not.
Both manifest the same conditions.
His mucous membrane is covered more or less with catarrhal discharges,
which result in granulated deposits, especially near the orifices. The
skin is often sallow, dry, yellow, scaly, flabby. The hair is dry,
non-oily, with a scaly scalp, and often there is a loss or total lack
of hair. The teeth are decayed, the gums are found to recede, and the
eyes, muscles, joints, etc., are more or less affected by calcareous
deposits.
Man is seldom or never in a normal physiological condition. He is
either obese or emaciated and lean. Most bodies are anemic and
ill-conditioned, a prey to several ailments. Of course, civilized man
uses drugs; he would not be civilized were he not to use on occasion
a stimulant, tonic, sedative, narcotic, etc., and he has to keep in
continual touch with a doctor, to take care of him by prescribing
special diet, fasts, exercise, and what not for his numerous bodily
infirmities. Generally these prescriptions are ineffective and
leave him physically weaker and financially poorer, with the barren
consolation that he has really tried everything under heaven that the
wisest knew or that money could buy. Yes, indeed, he tries everything:
everything but _water_--pure, soft, spring or distilled water. He
never--like the flirt--“thought of such a thing”! Very few “humanals”
think it worth while to irrigate themselves inside and out.
Victims of semi-ignorance, too, get things most abominably mixed. They
are often half wrong and half right; hence they never enjoy good,
sound, robust health and its blessings. Physiologically, these people
are what old-time pastors used to describe as lukewarm--neither hot nor
cold, neither good nor bad, neither dirty nor clean, neither fish nor
fowl, neither one thing nor another. So we find them also complaining
and looking for the fountain of health and strength, but not looking
very anxiously--they are not interested enough in the matter. Whenever
they possess an equal mixture of ignorance and laziness, there is not
much hope for them.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.
Œsophagus and stomach in their natural relation to the vertebral column
and aorta. (Gerrish.)]
Note the position of the stomach in health, and how, by slight
muscular action, it can free itself of its contents. When dilatation
or displacement, or both, occur, the power of rapidly expelling its
contents is diminished to the extent in which the change from the
normal position and size takes place. I have found that, if there is a
normal passing down of the ingesta and also of the feces, the stomach
will perform its functions perfectly. Fear of “stomach trouble” is
groundless if you keep the digestive and eliminative apparatus in good
working order. But this requires that you must keep them clean, and to
do so you must drink plenty of water before each meal.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.
Stomach and duodenum--the liver and most of the intestines having been
removed. (Gerrish.) Shows the anatomical relation of the stomach,
duodenum, kidneys, diaphragm, and the large artery and vein.]
The organs are held in position by a ligamentous attachment and
abundant fatty tissue, which serve as a connective cushion that
furnishes aid in supporting the organs in their proper place. In
chronic cases of self-poisoning, the victim, as a rule, becomes anemic
and emaciated, and loses thereby the fatty support required by the
organs. They are consequently apt to become displaced and the muscular
tissue weakened, with the consequent pendulous condition of the abdomen
often observed in both children and adults.
The clay-colored, flabby, obese, anemic victims may retain their
worthless adipose tissue; but they suffer quite as keenly as if they
had lost it--from the fact that this tissue is impregnated with poison
and filled with gas, and from the further fact that this abnormal
tissue presses on the vital organs here and there as the victim wheezes
or puffs along on his road through existence.
There is not the slightest doubt that nine-tenths of gastro-intestinal
ills and their effects can be prevented or cured by thorough irrigation
of the canal, from mouth to anus, if it does not itself perform the
cleansing process three times in twenty-four hours.
CHAPTER VIII.
METHODS OF STOMACH CLEANSING.
Lavage is a term restricted to irrigation of the stomach--a term that
has become more or less popular of late with physicians, but is not
so popular with those who have to swallow a rubber stomach tube, or
with the anxious mother or friends who are usually not permitted to
be present on such occasions because of the disturbed and cyanotic
appearance of the patient--an appearance produced by the introduction
of the catheter. Much can be said, however, of the good results
following irrigation of the stomach by the employment of the stomach
rubber tube, and in a special class of cases its use is imperative.
But my purpose in this chapter is to advocate the drinking of water as
the means _par excellence_ for effective irrigation of the assimilative
and eliminative organs, and to make it plain that this form of
irrigation is essential for the preservation of health and the relief
and cure of chronic inactivity of the principal organs of the system.
Usually the drinking of water at regular intervals is sufficient; but
in exceptional cases a generous drinking will result in a complete
unloading, which can be accomplished with ease and with little loss of
time.
Should your stomach be actually performing its office, the suggestions
I am about to give will, if followed, keep it sweet, clean, and in good
condition, and will also flush all the tissues of the body as well.
The first duty on rising in the morning should be that of flushing
the colon, as previously recommended, and flushing the stomach, as
now recommended. Take one or two goblets of water (about eight ounces
each) at a temperature most agreeable, which, however, should not be
ice cold. An hour or half an hour later, during the breakfast, take one
goblet of milk and water or two of water alone, when the mouth is free
from food. About eleven o’clock in the forenoon, one or two goblets
of spring or distilled water, at its natural temperature, should be
drunk to cleanse the stomach, duodenum, kidneys, etc., and to flush
the tissues of the body. At the noon meal one or two goblets, and at
four or five in the afternoon a similar amount, should be drunk--the
latter as a cleanser before the evening meal, at which about a pint or
more is drunk to aid in emulsifying the food, as at the breakfast and
noon repasts. As a rule, besides the amounts drunk at meal-time, there
should be consumed as much as two quarts daily, and the best time for
this is when the stomach is empty, or when it ought to be empty. At
bedtime, one or more glasses may be drunk if one does not suffer from
inconvenience from a full bladder during the sleeping hours.
One should make water-drinking a habit, like eating, sleeping,
defecating, etc. Water-drinking should be performed at regular periods
during the day. System is as essential for the harmonious working of
the organs as it is for the relations of the departments in a business,
or of the details of any particular department. The guide to the
order and temperature to be adopted is _agreeableness_. Find out by
experiment what is most agreeable and beneficial to you, and continue
the practice with slight variations adapted to the changes of the
seasons and the conditions of the system. There must, however, be some
training done in most cases, and what is not agreeable at first may
become so.
All persons suffering from proctitis and colitis and their symptoms,
as described in the previous chapters of this work and in _Intestinal
Ills_, will require, now and then, if not under treatment, special
irrigation of the stomach to remove fermentative matter, particles
of undigested food, and tenacious, ropy mucus before the next meal
is taken. Otherwise the condition will be made doubly bad, for the
fresh material is piled on top of the unduly retained contents of the
stomach. As evidence of our civilization, we clean pots and kettles
before the next meal. We even clean our fingers before, during, and
after the meal. Teeth, mouth, and face get their proper cleansing. Why
should we suppose that stomach, duodenum, and kidneys, which receive
all sorts of stuff, should remain clean without an occasional flushing?
They need rinsing out after brewing the wine of life. The water drunk
between meals not only cleanses the organs through which it passes but
irrigates the whole system, keeping a normal amount of water in all the
tissues, which is as necessary for the maintenance of health as is the
due supply of water to the plant in your conservatory.
Observe the large percentage of human beings that are anemic, sallow,
clay-colored, or white--a few obese, but the many spare, lean,
gaunt--all of them expressing the disgust of the soul in having such
an abiding-place. If all the organs and tissues of the body were kept
flushed, what a fresh and inviting spot the soul would have for the
cultivation here on earth of the arts of life!
Water is the wholesomest of all drinks. It quickens the appetite and
strengthens the digestion. It is the most effective agent in the work
of elimination--in ridding the system of waste material. Properly
taken, it prevents the undue clogging of the organs and tissues, and
tends to cure or relieve those that had become clogged, and it does
this by washing away the substances for which the system has no further
use, and which if they remained would poison it.
It is said that if water be drunk freely during a meal the gastric
juice will become diluted or washed away. A similar objection is
offered concerning the use of the enema. The horse, it is alleged,
should have more sense than to drink from three to six gallons of water
and almost immediately thereafter eat a peck or more of oats and a
quantity of hay, for it ought to know that there is no room for food
with such an amount of water in the stomach. If such objectors could
but see the horse smile at such arguments--for it secretly knows that
the water does not _remain_ in its stomach, and that its gastric juice
is naturally strong and needs dilution--they would stand aghast. Would
we not be better off if we were not influenced by fool talk like the
above advice to the horse, especially as regards our internal economy?
The stomach, like the freight station, can accommodate only a limited
amount. Its contents must be rapidly dispersed, and every muscular
contraction and every respiration gives it an impulse. Disease and
lack of irrigation will occasion an accumulation or congestion of
the contents in the gastro-intestinal canal, and then the victim of
slow transit complains of indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, uric
acid, and of many other ills. Your foul, furred tongue is a very good
indication of the trouble below, so it is wise to examine it in the
morning to learn your interior condition. Many persons scrape their
tongue with a knife because of heavy coating and offensive odor and
taste. Dyspeptics of this order need a thorough internal bath from
above (per os) and from below (per anus).
Some that suffer from undue gastric retention and indigestion
will find relief by flushing the colon and the stomach, as herein
specifically directed. Others may find it desirable to start with
a mild laxative and an intestinal wash-out with hot water in which
some antiseptic or stimulant has been dissolved. The special stomach
cleansing is accomplished by the rapid drinking of one tumbler of hot
water after another, until a pint or more is taken into the stomach,
or until a sensation of vomiting is felt, which may be encouraged by
putting the end of the finger down the throat as far as possible or the
end of a long lead-pencil wrapped in a little muslin. After as much of
the contents of the stomach as is desired is thus cast forth, drink
freely of water again, as much as you may think proper, which will be
discharged into the duodenum. If this gastro-cleansing has occurred
near meal-time omit the meal altogether, and in an hour or two drink as
much water as is agreeable, to make sure of a thorough washing out of
the erstwhile neglected receptacle--the stomach. This special washing
out of the stomach may be repeated as often as occasion demands it. It
frequently happens with some persons that an hour after a meal there
is a hint that all is not well. This may be concealed or corrected by
drinking a goblet or two of water, which practice will permit the brew
to go on without further attention to the vat.
Water may be taken at all times of the day or night if occasion arises
for its therapeutic effect in addition to its regular period of use.
Usually physic, pepsin, soda, charcoal, whiskey, etc., are kept within
reach, and are resorted to on such occasions with the thought that one
or more of them will do the work. They will not, however, any more than
red paint will act as an antidote to poor health by painting the cheeks
with it. Water, hot water, especially when used plentifully, is the
only solvent of dirt.
Very few realize how essential water is to digestion and to the
digestive canal after the process of digestion is completed; and that
it has physiological effects on the system generally is less widely
known. There exists a great natural demand for water to carry on the
normal functions of the system; for both atmosphere and heat draw
moisture from the body, and a considerable amount is utilized in the
processes of our daily work and in unexpected efforts. An organism
composed of almost eighty per cent. of water requires a generous supply
for subsistence--a supply equal to the expenditure of vitality involved
in carrying on the numerous functions of body and brain.
Some day it will be discovered that water is mainly the element
employed in psycho-physiological processes. Water is easily changed to
air, and atmospheric air to water, in the system. The generous consumer
of air and water will have a good stock of vital or of psychical force
on which to draw for the process of thinking. A thinker is a creator,
and he must be successful if his thoughts be rightly directed and he
have an ample supply of liquid food--water.
CHAPTER IX.
WHEN ENEMAS SHOULD BE TAKEN.
Method is imperative in this strenuous life of ours. Nature in her
universal operations seems to sanction a uniform system in our
daily conduct. Had we a regular time for doing things, periodicity
would be established in our sleeping, eating, bathing, defecating,
work, recreation, etc. Unfortunately, we are prone to ignorance,
self-indulgence, procrastination, which render us careless and reckless
in regard to the common-sense conditions of normal living; and before
we are fairly out of our ’teens we begin to bear a crop of proctitis,
colitis, constipation, etc.
It is in this way that periodicity as to stooling is lost, and whim,
convenience, or necessity takes its place. As a result, we dribble or
strain under the fecal and gaseous burden. This happy-go-lucky method
accounts for much of the gastro-intestinal disorder complained of by
so many, who “want to die” when the painful neurasthenic blues hover
around and pervade their bodies like a dense fog.
The insidious manner in which proctitis, colitis, constipation, and
self-poisoning progress from mild through medium to severe stages does
not, generally, alarm the victim of intestinal neurasthenia until many
years have elapsed, and one or more of the vital organs have become
diseased, and the whole system is thoroughly under its toxic effects.
Thus, slowly, are the various segments of the gastro-intestinal canal
changed to an abnormal condition.
Suppose the tissues of one of your arms and hands were inflamed,
constricted, or swollen, and that the nerves of motion were uncertain,
shaky, and “kinky,”--all of which conditions we often find in the
digestive apparatus,--and that finally recovery takes place under
persevering and patient treatment; how soon, think you, could a
sensible person expect the limb thus affected to become as useful as
its companion that had never been disturbed by disease?
Unfortunately, we have not two sets of bowels. Ocean steamers are
equipped with two sets of motion-producing engines, so that the
disability of one will result in no loss of speed. When man places as
much commercial value on himself as he does on his machines or on a
boat, he will either induce Nature to furnish him with an extra set of
energy-producing organs, or he will take the best possible care of the
only one she vouchsafes to him--a care that extends from os to anus.
Civilized man does, indeed, take a little notice of a sore mouth
(although indifferent about an unclean one), and will even try hard
to have it heal, because a sore mouth may be _seen_, and is likely to
disfigure him. But a sore anus and rectum may, for all he seriously
cares, play their painful and poisonous pranks until he is put to
bed disabled or is sent to an asylum--or to the final inn where all
diseases of the body cease from troubling and the weary organs are at
rest.
To re-establish that normal régime of physiological relations called
health, after many years of perverse relations and disorderly
practices, obviously requires time and intelligent, faithful attention
to prescribed conditions.
The factors or causes that militate against the removal of curable
diseases are:
(1) The neglect of a local disorder until it has had time to exhaust
the general vitality of the system.
(2) Inattention on the part of the patient after he has obtained
temporary or partial relief.
(3) The victim arbitrarily setting his own time limit for the cure of
the disease.
(4) His wilful disobedience of prescribed rules.
(5) Inability to realize the importance of having the cause removed, as
well as the local symptoms.
Confining attention for the present to proctitis and colitis, I wish to
impress the patient, as well as the physician, with the fact that no
better measure for relieving or removing these undermining disorders
can be adopted than the regular practice, twice or thrice daily, of
intestinal irrigation by means of enemas. The persistent use of the
enema is directly influential in relieving and removing the symptoms of
such disorders. These symptoms may be piles, prolapse, skinny tabs,
fissure, dull pains, soreness, itching channels, stricture of the anus
and rectum, ulceration, abscess, fistula, cancer, etc.