partly anal and partly intestinal. Pus
corpuscles were present in small numbers; also vegetable fibres, fat,
starch, muscle fibres and cellulose--the remains of undigested
material. In the membranes themselves no micro-organisms were found; in
the pieces containing undigested material the bacillus coli communis
was found as well as micrococci, and the bacilli of putrefaction
(secondary formation) were seen.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CAUSE OF CONSTIPATION AND HOW WE IGNORANTLY TREAT IT.

One of the best preparations for active life is a first-class
intestinal canal.

"An old Scotch physician," says Sir Astley Cooper, "for whom I had a
great respect and whom I frequently met in consultation, used to say to
me as we were about to enter our patient's room together, 'Weel,
Misther Cooper, we ha' only twa things to keep in meend, and they'll
serve us for here and herea'ter; one is au'ways to hae the fear o' the
Laird before our e'es, that'll do for herea'ter; and th' t'other is to
keep our boo'els au'ways open, and that'll do for here.'"

A person whose mind is devoted to the realization of ideals, and whose
body has a set of bowels that perform the act of defecation twice every
twenty-four hours is doubly prepared for a useful life.

"If thou well observe
In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seek from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature."

Milton's advice in poetic lines is all very well for those who have
escaped chronic inflammation of the lower bowels, an ailment common and
troublesome even under the very best dietetic regulations.

Inflammation having once penetrated the circular and longitudinal
muscular fibres or bands of a section of the intestine, all hope of a
comfortable existence is at an end, for such inflammation will bring on
constipation and constipation nervous misery. It is inevitable that
inflammation should determine this outcome since it induces spasmodic
contraction of the muscular walls of the tube, lessening the bore or
closing the portion of the canal invaded. Plastic infiltration takes
place in the walls of the gut, thickening and binding them together;
or, if the inflammation be of a simple catarrhal or atrophic nature,
the plastic infiltration will more or less bind the circu