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. There is likewise more or less headache, neuralgia, giddiness, hebetude (state of mild stupidity), dejection, confusion of the senses, skin disease, acne rosacea (scarlet redness of the nose and cheeks), eczema, etc. The headache may be seated in the centre of the brain and extend to one or both eyeballs and be increased by stooping. Should diarrhea occur many of the annoying symptoms are likely not to be present.
In this form of indigestion the bowels are often much constipated, which is usually only a more marked symptom of chronic constipation. The system now and then vigorously rebels against this chronic condition and an acute bilious attack is the evidence of such rebellion. The whole digestive canal is involved in the rebellion, resulting in the symptoms described and also in a morose, petulant and querulous temper, accompanied by a peculiar, despairing expression,—partly due, perhaps, to regrets of having only one digestive apparatus,—or in some cases, perhaps, of having any.
That the character and disposition may be materially influenced by such a state of the bowels is well established. Plato believed that "an infirm constitution is an obstacle to virtue, because such persons think of nothing but their own wretched carcasses"; for which reason he contended that Æsculapius should not undertake to patch up persons habitually complaining, lest they beget children as useless as themselves, being persuaded that it was an injury both to the community and to the infirm person himself that he continue in the world, even though he were richer than Midas.
Acting on this well-known fact, the celebrated Voltaire, in one of the articles in his Philosophical Dictionary, has very humorously ascribed half the evils of Europe to the intestinal irritations of the public men of the age.