Under the benignant influence of the water injected in the large intestine there comes a desire to expel it, which, when responded to, carries with it the feces so long imprisoned, and at the same time divests the walls of the intestine of the inevitable incrustations.
Thus, with purifying water, the foul pool is emptied, and the parts are cleansed so thoroughly that nothing is left to vex the inflamed tissue.
Is there any sane person that can offer one valid objection to the use of depuratory enemas in cases in which the normal function of the bowels is lost through abnormal changes brought about by chronic disease?
CHAPTER V.
Rebellion of our outraged Internal Economy.
The small intestine is that portion of the alimentary canal which begins at the stomach and ends at the large intestine. Its usual length is twenty feet. The diameter, which at the upper portion (duodenum) is two inches, gradually becomes less, until at the lower end it is but one inch.
Now, the length of the inner coat of this small intestine—the mucous membrane—is about double that of the intestine itself. Think of wearing a coat twice as long as yourself! How do you think this is accomplished in the case of the muscular tube under consideration? Well, Nature, having a most peculiar function to perform, has thrown this mucous coat or tube into a thousand folds (valvulæ conniventes, or “winking valves”). These folds form valves, occupying from one-third to one-half the circumference of the bowel. The greatest width of each fold is at the center, where it measures from a quarter to half an inch. Over this great expanse of mucous membrane we find studded ten million five hundred thousand intestinal villi, whose office it is to absorb the food substances in their passage through the canal.
