sons. More often
man's early and most common malady, proctitis, is the direct or
indirect cause. Some forms of ulceration of the lower bowel induce
diarrhea. Chronic cases of diarrhea usually follow the decline of
vitality marked by the symptom of Costiveness, which means the
interruption of all the functions of nutrition. The intestinal canal is
then like a rubber tube with the contents hurried through it. The whole
system is irritable as the result of an accumulation of secondary
symptoms expressed by the word auto-intoxication.

The food should be nutritious and non-irritating to the intestinal
canal.

Reliance must be placed, in severe cases, on liquid foods and
beverages.

The more solid foods may be taken in limited quantity as the recovery
progresses. In more acute cases it is well to stop all food for twelve
or twenty-four hours.

You may take:

_Liquid Food and Beverages_: Drink, if possible, pure spring water.
If this cannot be obtained, sterilize the water, or distil and
aerate it; it must be pure and soft. Better still: drink toast- or
rice-water; kefyr, four days old; koumiss; lactic-acid water;
zoolak; egg lemonade; sterilized milk with one third lime-water;
whortleberry wine; acorn cocoa; unfermented grape-juice.

_Soup_: chicken; mutton; clam; oyster broth; Doxsee's clam-juice;
bouillon; Milkine; Horlick's and Mellin's food.

_Meat_: minced chicken; scraped beef; roast fowl; beef steak;
fillet of beef; raw beef; sweetbread; raw oysters.

_Eggs_: lightly boiled, poached.

_Cereals and Fruit_: grapes at all hours, eaten without seeds or
skin; arrowroot; tapioca; sago; barley mush; macaroni; rice boiled
with milk; milk toast; dry toast; crackers; junket; bread pudding;
egg pudding, not sweetened; hasty pudding, with flour and milk;
mashed potatoes.

_Avoid_: pork; veal; nuts; salt meats; fish; fried foods; sugary
foods; fruits, cooked or raw; oatmeal; brown and graham bread; new
bread; vegetables; and most soups.

A FINAL WORD TO THOSE TO WHOM I HAVE DEDICATED THIS BOOK.

It is very evident from the perusal of this work that the symptoms of
proctitis, both general and local, proceed from no trifling disease;
and also that the disease may have existed for a very long time,
perhaps as much as twenty, forty or more years. During the greater part
of its existence all sorts of medication have been tried to allay t