, but she came
through with flying colors. A short time ago Miss H. came back to see
me,--a happy, robust young woman, very different from the person I had
first known. She assured me that she had never had any return of her
old symptoms and that she was as well as a person could be.

=Living up to a Suggestion.= Mrs. T. had not had a natural movement of
the bowels in twenty-five years. After the birth of a child,
twenty-five years before, her physician had told her that her muscles
had been so badly torn in labor that they could not carry through a
natural movement. After that she had never gone a day without a pill
or an enema. I explained to her that when any muscle of the rectum is
injured in childbirth, it is the sphincter-ani, and that since this is
the muscle whose contraction holds back the bowel content, its injury
would tend to over-free evacuation rather than to constipation. She
saw the point and within two or three days regained her old power of
spontaneous evacuation.

=Practical Steps.= The first step, then, in acquiring normal habits is
the conviction of the integrity of our physical machines and a
determination not to interfere by thought, or by physical meddling,
with the elemental functions of our bodies. After this all-important
step, there are a few practical suggestions which it is well to
follow. Most of them are nothing more than the common-sense habits of
personal hygiene which are so obvious as to be almost axiomatic, but
which are nevertheless often neglected:

1 Eat three square meals a day.

2 Drink when thirsty, having conveniently at hand the facilities for
drinking.

3 Heed the call to stool as you heed the call of hunger. When the
stool passes the little valve between the upper and lower portions of
the rectum, it gives the signal that the time for evacuation has come.
If this signal is always heeded, it will automatically start the
machinery that leads to evacuation. If it is persistently ignored
because one is too busy, or because the mind is filled with the idea
of disability, the call very soon fails to rise to the level of
consciousness. The feces remain in the rectum, and the bad habit is
begun.

4 Choose a regular time and keep that appointment with yourself as
regularly as possible. In all the activities of Nature, there is a
rhythm which it is well to observe.

5 Take time to acquire the habit. Do not be in a hurry. Do not strain.
No amount of effort will start the mov