Note the position of the stomach in health, and how, by slight muscular action, it can free itself of its contents. When dilatation or displacement, or both, occur, the power of rapidly expelling its contents is diminished to the extent in which the change from the normal position and size takes place. I have found that, if there is a normal passing down of the ingesta and also of the feces, the stomach will perform its functions perfectly. Fear of “stomach trouble” is groundless if you keep the digestive and eliminative apparatus in good working order. But this requires that you must keep them clean, and to do so you must drink plenty of water before each meal.
Fig. 17.
Stomach and duodenum—the liver and most of the intestines having been removed. (Gerrish.) Shows the anatomical relation of the stomach, duodenum, kidneys, diaphragm, and the large artery and vein.
The organs are held in position by a ligamentous attachment and abundant fatty tissue, which serve as a connective cushion that furnishes aid in supporting the organs in their proper place. In chronic cases of self-poisoning, the victim, as a rule, becomes anemic and emaciated, and loses thereby the fatty support required by the organs. They are consequently apt to become displaced and the muscular tissue weakened, with the consequent pendulous condition of the abdomen often observed in both children and adults.
The clay-colored, flabby, obese, anemic victims may retain their worthless adipose tissue; but they suffer quite as keenly as if they had lost it—from the fact that this tissue is impregnated with poison and filled with gas, and from the further fact that this abnormal tissue presses on the vital organs here and there as the victim wheezes or puffs along on his road through existence.
There is not the slightest doubt that nine-tenths of gastro-intestinal ills and their effects can be prevented or cured by thorough irrigation of the canal, from mouth to anus, if it does not itself perform the cleansing process three times in twenty-four hours.