an, once consulted me. On
examination, I found her afflicted with atrophic catarrh, chronic
constipation and anal ulceration, from which she had suffered for seven
years, with but little intermission from pain during each day of that
entire period.

CHAPTER X.

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.