Intestinal Ills.

by Alcinous Burton Jamison.

BEAUTY'S FALL.

It was an image good to see, With spirits high and full of glee, And robust health endowed; Its face was loveliness untold, Its lines were cast in beauty's mold; At its own shrine it bowed.

With perfect form in each respect, It proudly stood with head erect And skin surpa.s.sing fair; Surveyed itself from foot to head, And then complacently it said: "Naught can with me compare."

When lo the face began to pale, The body looked too thin and frail, The cheek had lost its glow; The tongue a tale of woe did tell, With nerves impaired its spirits fell; The fire of life burned low.

In the intestinal ca.n.a.l Waste matter lay, and sad to tell, Was left from day to day; And while it was neglected there It undermined that structure fair, And caused it to decay.

The doctor's words I would recall Who said: "Neglect precedes a fall,"

And verily 'tis true; For ye who disregard your health, And value not that precious wealth, Will surely live to rue.

PREFACE.

The following chapters were contributions to _Health_--a monthly magazine published in New York City. Certain peculiarities of form and considerable repet.i.tion of statement--both of which the reader cannot fail to notice--are owing to the fact that about two-thirds of the chapters were written under the caption "Auto-genetic Poisons in the Intestinal Ca.n.a.l and their Auto-infection." In revising these contributions for book form I have given to each chapter a caption of its leading thought; but I am convinced that repet.i.tion of some of the matters treated, especially if the repet.i.tion be in a somewhat different connection, is not such a very bad thing. I have used my blue pencil sparingly, and as a consequence the consecutive reader will find that constipation, diarrhea, biliousness, indigestion, auto-infection and proct.i.tis are treated in nearly all the chapters--but with varying applications. Therefore anyone suffering from one of these complaints would better read the whole book instead of only the chapter with the corresponding t.i.tle.

These pages were written for intelligent laymen by a specialist, during a busy, a.s.siduous practice. I take such radical ground, however, going to the very root of the matter, that the general pract.i.tioner will do well to give my thesis his careful consideration; he should at least glance at the following Introduction for the gist of my claim.

INTRODUCTION.

The keynote of this book is Proct.i.tis, inflammation of the a.n.a.l and rectal ca.n.a.ls. Hardly a civilized man escapes proct.i.tis from the day of the diaper to that of death. The diaper is in truth chiefly responsible for proct.i.tis, and proct.i.tis is in turn chiefly responsible for chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea, auto-infection; and hence for mal-a.s.similation, mal-nutrition, anemia; and for a thousand and one reflex functional derangements of the system as well. The inflamed surface of the intestinal ca.n.a.l (proct.i.tis) inhibits the pa.s.sage 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 proct.i.tis, 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 Proct.i.tis!

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-revealer _par excellence_. Through digestion and a.s.similation the physiological process takes up the food, juices and gases, to support and augment the life of man. The pathological process, on the contrary, because the conditions for nutrition are ignored, reverses the upbuilding processes; and the organs of life wither, waste and weaken, until life goes out like fire unfed.

Man has been slowly learning to take sanitary measures in reference to everything that contributes to comfort in his surroundings, and hygienic measures in reference to everything conducive to stability in his health.

Through ages he has learned, by experience and experiment, of the changes that inevitably occur in such perishable nutritive substances as water, milk, meats, vegetables, fruits, etc., if they be left uncared for; and he has been led thus to the inference of the law of decomposition--or putrefactive and fermentative changes. Idle substances, like idle minds, have decomposition and the devil for companions. Substances confined in containers open to the air--ponds, cesspools, etc.--are every-day object lessons to man of the fact that the chemical changes they undergo furnish the conditions for breeding bacterial poisons, and that these poisons are a dread menace to animal life.

If the reader will observe the a.n.a.logy between the decomposition of substances in vessels or pools, and the decomposition of food in the reservoir called the stomach; and its further decomposition in a long ca.n.a.l (the small intestine), connecting the stomach with other receptacles called the colon and sigmoid flexure; and then the decomposition of _their_ contents; he will readily comprehend the chemical putrefactive or fermentative changes or bacterial action that take place in the organism, if for any reason the contents be confined.

Of the four chief elements that enter into the composition of living bodies three are gaseous, or convertible into gas. In the physical man water const.i.tutes three-fourths of the weight of the body. This being so we realize why, notwithstanding our sense of solidity and weight, chemical changes occur quite as readily in our organism as in the substances we see about us. There are no waterproof walls in the body of man to impede the percolation of liquids freighted with promiscuous Pa.s.sengers from the alimentary ca.n.a.l; Pa.s.sengers designed to nourish the organs for which they have an affinity. But there are those that have no organic affinity, and these are tramps, vagabonds, and even murderers, disturbing and destroying the normal functions of the system. Through extravasation, that is, through fluid infiltration of tissues, these Pa.s.sengers come to be one with us, and we make them part of our tissue; but some of the Pa.s.sengers are the demolishers of the living temple.

Water is universally present in all the tissues of the body, and it is indispensable for introducing new substances into the system and for eliminating the worn-out tissues and foreign substances. It is indeed important to emphasize the fact that properly to eliminate the foreign and waste products from the system requires, in a healthy person, at least five pints of water during twenty-four hours.

The amount of gastric juice secreted in twenty-four hours is from six to fourteen pints; of pancreatic juice, one pint; of bile there are two to three pints, and of saliva one to three pints. It is estimated that the juices secreted during digestion in a man weighing 140 pounds amount to twenty-three pounds in twenty-four hours. These fluids are poured back and forth in the process of transforming food into flesh and eliminating waste material.

In the alimentary ca.n.a.l there are vessels for holding fluid, semi-fluid and moist ma.s.ses of substance, in all of which decomposition occurs if the substances be retained beyond the normal length of time. These vessels or reservoirs are the stomach, duodenum, small intestines, colon, sigmoid flexure, and too often the r.e.c.t.u.m. Through the harmonious action of this intestinal retinue of servitors man is well equipped and qualified for health, and he in whom this harmonious subservience prevails is among the blessed and elect of mankind. But alas! the great majority of human beings are sufferers from the inharmonious and insubordinate action of these servitors. How many a human being suffers from _chronic constipation and indigestion_, the exciting causes of which are insidious, and the consequences a protean enemy to his happiness! Medical writers on the subject of chronic constipation have a.s.signed numerous causes, and likewise prescribed mult.i.tudinous remedies to the patient; but as a general rule this patient, after suffering various woes, if still surviving the many years of medication, rebels against taking further remedies and resigns himself to the chronic enemy on the best terms he can make with diet.

For this large cla.s.s of chronic sufferers we have good news; and for the cla.s.s that have suffered five or ten years we have better news; and for the cla.s.s of infants and children that have started on the road of ill-health we have real glad tidings. To know that there is only one chief cause for chronic constipation and its train of disorders, and that that cause overshadows all other causes combined, and is easily diagnosed and treated, is news long hoped and prayed for by a mult.i.tude of sufferers the world over.

Twenty years as a specialist in diseases of the lower bowels have demonstrated to the writer that chronic inflammation, and often ulceration, of the r.e.c.t.u.m and sigmoid flexure, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is the cause of chronic constipation and the long army of ills resulting from it. And yet, as the reader is well aware, constipation has had many "causes," since the days of Hippocrates, especially the abnormal condition of the liver.

The etiology, that is, the exciting cause, of the inflammation of the a.n.u.s, r.e.c.t.u.m, colon, etc., may date from the time a diaper was placed on the new-born infant. Excoriations of the integument about the a.n.u.s by the excretions of bowels and bladder indicate that the mucous membrane of a.n.u.s and r.e.c.t.u.m demands local remedies, as well as the integument of the b.u.t.tocks, and that it is not the liver which is at fault. The many applications of the diaper during the period of its use, and the frequently delayed removal at night or during long rides in baby wagons, railway trains or carriages, and during long social visits of the nurse; constipating foods, lack of drinking water, constipating medicines, followed by all sorts of purgatives, etc., are among a few of the direct causes of diseases of the r.e.c.t.u.m. A child at the age of eighteen months with a healthy r.e.c.t.u.m is most rare.

The ten thousand and one chances for contracting disease of the a.n.u.s and r.e.c.t.u.m do not cease with the period of infancy. The child is left pretty much to shift for itself as to regularity of eating and the evacuation of the contents of its bowels, wherein disease has already obtained a foothold. All kinds of foodstuffs, at all hours, with seeds, stones, etc., are poked into its stomach, followed by constipating remedies to quiet inevitable troubles, or brisk purgatives given with the hope of expelling the arrested contents of the bowels. Is it any wonder that ninety-eight persons of adult age out of every hundred suffer more or less from chronic inflammation and ulceration of a.n.u.s, r.e.c.t.u.m, sigmoid flexure, colon, or appendix?

Traumatic (externally produced) injuries to the mucous membrane of the r.e.c.t.u.m frequently cause inflammation, and hard pieces of bone, wood, seeds, imbedded in the feces, scratch, cut and bruise the tissues before and during the act of defecation. Cold boards, stones, earth and other substances used as seats may produce inflammation of the r.e.c.t.u.m.

There are many and various causes which may be the means of exciting inflammation of the a.n.u.s and r.e.c.t.u.m later in life; but it is the writer's opinion that the cause can be traced back to infancy or early childhood, and that accidents or imprudence in after years merely excite an already-existing chronic inflammation. Piles, fissure, itching pockets, tabs, prolapse, abscesses, fistulae, etc., are only the outcome and symptoms of a chronic disease which has incubated for fifteen, twenty or more years. None of this list of troubles produces constipation. It is the inflammation located at the middle portion of the r.e.c.t.u.m and extending into the sigmoid flexure that causes constipation; that protean monster which deranges more lives with nervousness than any other pathological condition to which the flesh of man is heir!

CHAPTER II.

THE PHYSICS OF DIGESTION AND EGESTION.

A tree is simply an extension from its roots; and, in an a.n.a.logous manner, man's body may be said to be an extension from the alimentary ca.n.a.l. Does it not follow, consequently, that the digestive apparatus, from a physiological point of view, is the most important organ of the human body? It must be prime and paramount because all other organs depend upon it: it provides them with nourishment for preservation and improvement, and it punishes them--if they do not mind the laws of normality--by withholding its gifts, or by presenting these gifts in the form of poisons that impoverish, hinder and degenerate the system of organs. Uncleanliness is surely one of the chief ways in which physiological thoughtlessness is exhibited, and due punishment will inevitably follow disobedience.

Foodstuffs are prepared for a.s.similation in the alimentary laboratory through the process of normal fermentation. Is it not essential, therefore, that the connecting ca.n.a.ls and receptacles be cleansed of the fermented debris that may remain unused and unexpelled, before more food be taken by the digestive apparatus? The all-important question is:--How soon and how well have the residuary part of the food (for some part will always be undigested or una.s.similated), and the waste resulting from worn-out tissues of the various organs, been eliminated from the system? Wisdom declares that it is not so much what we eat, but what and how well we eliminate, that decides the issues of health and disease. Do the egesta pa.s.s out in the form of normal feces? Three times in twenty-four hours foodstuffs are taken, and as many times the bowels should be freed of acc.u.mulated excrement and gases. Does Nature have her way, or do neglect and bad habits rule the a.s.similative and eliminative functions of the bowels?

The habit of storing feces for twenty-four hours ought to concur and keep pace with a habit of eating one meal in the same period. Household and laboratory receptacles in which fermentation has occurred are emptied and cleaned before fresh material is put into them. Is not the same precaution more essential with the receptacles for digestion and egestion? They const.i.tute our chief physiological economy; they are precious household and laboratory utensils; exceedingly precious, as we can purchase no other set when these are worn and wasted beyond repair.

What marvelous possessions, and how reckless most of us are with them!

Neither love nor money will bring another "body"-house to us when this decays; when poisons or parasites infest it as the result of a pernicious diathesis, of debasing, destructive tendencies; in short, of unmindfulness!

Too often criminal negligence or the lack of proper convenience has brought on the habit of using the intestinal ca.n.a.l as a storehouse for dried feces, and the glands and blood-vessels as reservoirs for the absorbed fluid poisons from the feces that have been stored and thus dried. This baneful habit is general throughout civilized communities.

It is this habit that has made the words "constipation," "indigestion,"

"diarrhea," etc., familiar and household subjects of complaint. Medical writers agree that "constipation" is the most common malady that afflicts mankind; but they are also unanimous in preposterously attributing the cause to the abnormal action of the liver and the secondary symptoms of constipation.

Chronic constipation is the result of proct.i.tis and colitis. Proct.i.tis, the inflammation of the rectal and a.n.a.l ca.n.a.ls, is the most common disease that afflicts the human creature from infancy to old age; and colitis is only the extension of proct.i.tis to the colon.