BILIOUSNESS AND BILIOUS ATTACKS.
Commonly the source of chronic gastro-intestinal uncleanliness, of
dyspepsia, of autogenetic poisons and auto-infection is inflammatory
occlusion--more or less permanent or spasmodic--of some part of the
lower bowel. Many years of auto-infection will exhibit such diseased
symptoms as poor appetite, bad digestion, impoverished blood,
emaciation, etc., accompanied by increased virulence of the catarrhal
discharge of mucus, shreds, etc., and a mind and body sinking down to
the morbid plane of hysteria, hypochondriasis (fear of illness) and
neurasthenia (debility of the nervous system).
Biliousness and bilious attacks are evidence that there is a more or
less constipated condition, that there has been an occasional
imprudence in diet, and that the dreadful sense of fulness up to the
end of the tongue is a faithful report of the state of affairs. What is
it but a full foul condition of the digestive canal, a complete
blockade of the canal from the rectum or colon to the stomach, making
the victim feel that there must be something done in the way of
cleaning out? He fears that the condition will be followed by
fever--not infrequently this is the case. Biliousness is usually
supposed to be occasioned by hindrance to the flow of bile, and the
conclusion is drawn that the liver requires stimulating. This
supposition is erroneous and very far from pathological veritude, as
the liver, like the other organs, is merely _a secondary sufferer from
the over-eating and the closed sewer_.
"The _bowels_ with sullen vapours cloud the brain,
And bind the spirits in _their_ heavy chain;
Howe'er the cause fantastick may appear,
The effect is real, and the pain severe."
The bilious attack is usually noticed in the morning before food has
been taken. The tongue is heavily coated and often so foul that it is
necessary to scrape it and cleanse the mouth of disagreeable taste.
Eructations, nausea followed by vomiting of undigested foul-smelling
food, and if the vomiting be long-continued, mucus from the stomach and
bile that had accumulated in the duodenum, are sufficient evidence that
there was no torpidity of the liver. There is likewise more or less
headache, neuralgia, giddiness, hebetude (state of mild stupidity),
dejection, confusion of the senses, skin disease, acne rosacea (scarlet
redness of the nose and cheeks), eczema, etc. The headache may be
seated in the centre of the brain and extend to one or both eyeballs
and be increased by stooping. Should diarrhea occur many of the
annoying symptoms are likely not to be present.
In this form of indigestion the bowels are often much constipated,
which is usually only a more marked symptom of chronic constipation.
The system now and then vigorously rebels against this chronic
condition and an acute bilious attack is the evidence of such
rebellion. The whole digestive canal is involved in the rebellion,
resulting in the symptoms described and also in a morose, petulant
and querulous temper, accompanied by a peculiar, despairing
expression,--partly due, perhaps, to regrets of having only _one_
digestive apparatus,--or in some cases, perhaps, of having _any_.
That the character and disposition may be materially influenced by such
a state of the bowels is well established. Plato believed that "an
infirm constitution is an obstacle to virtue, because such persons
think of nothing but their own wretched carcasses"; for which reason he
contended that Æsculapius should not undertake to patch up persons
habitually complaining, lest they beget children as useless as
themselves, being persuaded that it was an injury both to the community
and to the infirm person himself that he continue in the world, even
though he were richer than Midas.
Acting on this well-known fact, the celebrated Voltaire, in one of the
articles in his _Philosophical Dictionary_, has very humorously
ascribed half the evils of Europe to the intestinal irritations of the
public men of the age.
"Let the person," he adds, "who may wish to ask a favor of a minister,
or a minister's secretary, or kept mistress, endeavor previously, by
all means, to ascertain whether they go to stool regularly; and, if
possible, to approach them after a comfortable evacuation, that being a
most propitious moment, one of the _mollia tempora fandi_, when the
individual is good-humored and pleased with all around him."