h. The diaper is in truth chiefly responsible
for proctitis, and proctitis is in turn chiefly responsible for chronic
constipation, chronic diarrhea, auto-infection; and hence for
mal-assimilation, mal-nutrition, anemia; and for a thousand and one
reflex functional derangements of the system as well. The inflamed
surface of the intestinal canal (proctitis) inhibits the passage of
feces. Absorbent glands begin to act on the retained sewage, and the
whole system becomes more or less infected with poisonous bacteria.
Various organs (especially the feeblest) endeavor to perform vicarious
defecation, and the patient, the friends, and even the physician are
deceived by such vicarious performance into thinking and treating it as
a local ailment. I cannot, accordingly, insist too emphatically that
proctitis, the exciting cause, must be treated primarily if we would
cure chronic constipation. Millions of human beings are sent to
untimely graves by these ailments. Indeed, the body of nearly every
human being is a pest-house of absorbed poison instead of being the
worthy temple of a wondrous soul. All due to Proctitis!

INTESTINAL ILLS

CHAPTER I.

MAN, COMPOSED ALMOST WHOLLY OF WATER, IS CONSTIPATED. WHY?

Naturally the mind of man was first educated to observe external
objects and forces in their effects upon himself, and the external
still continues to engross his attention as if he were a child in a
kindergarten. Fascinated by the Without, he ignores the Within. But,
marvel of marvels, Disease (which when looked at with discerning eyes
is seen to be an angel in disguise) comes to enlighten him concerning
the world within. Disease gradually acquaints him with the fact that
there are within him organs and functions corresponding to the objects
and forces in the world without,--servitors in fact which must not be
ignored under penalty of transforming them into foes to his well-being.
Disease makes him aware that by ignoring the claims of his inner
relations he has been converting his very food, juices and gases into
insidious and formidable poisons, which perforce he absorbs into his
blood and tissues and circulates throughout his entire system. Thus
does the disguised angel admonish the ignorant that the rights of the
inner world must not be ignored--that one's duties thereto cannot be
neglected without disastrous consequences.

Thus does Pathology, which is really Physiology reversed, become the
self-reveale