The stomach, like the freight station, can accommodate only a limited amount. Its contents must be rapidly dispersed, and every muscular contraction and every respiration gives it an impulse. Disease and lack of irrigation will occasion an accumulation or congestion of the contents in the gastro-intestinal canal, and then the victim of slow transit complains of indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, uric acid, and of many other ills. Your foul, furred tongue is a very good indication of the trouble below, so it is wise to examine it in the morning to learn your interior condition. Many persons scrape their tongue with a knife because of heavy coating and offensive odor and taste. Dyspeptics of this order need a thorough internal bath from above (per os) and from below (per anus).
Some that suffer from undue gastric retention and indigestion will find relief by flushing the colon and the stomach, as herein specifically directed. Others may find it desirable to start with a mild laxative and an intestinal wash-out with hot water in which some antiseptic or stimulant has been dissolved. The special stomach cleansing is accomplished by the rapid drinking of one tumbler of hot water after another, until a pint or more is taken into the stomach, or until a sensation of vomiting is felt, which may be encouraged by putting the end of the finger down the throat as far as possible or the end of a long lead-pencil wrapped in a little muslin. After as much of the contents of the stomach as is desired is thus cast forth, drink freely of water again, as much as you may think proper, which will be discharged into the duodenum. If this gastro-cleansing has occurred near meal-time omit the meal altogether, and in an hour or two drink as much water as is agreeable, to make sure of a thorough washing out of the erstwhile neglected receptacle—the stomach. This special washing out of the stomach may be repeated as often as occasion demands it. It frequently happens with some persons that an hour after a meal there is a hint that all is not well. This may be concealed or corrected by drinking a goblet or two of water, which practice will permit the brew to go on without further attention to the vat.
Water may be taken at all times of the day or night if occasion arises for its therapeutic effect in addition to its regular period of use. Usually physic, pepsin, soda, charcoal, whiskey, etc., are kept within reach, and are resorted to on such occasions with the thought that one or more of them will do the work. They will not, however, any more than red paint will act as an antidote to poor health by painting the cheeks with it. Water, hot water, especially when used plentifully, is the only solvent of dirt.
Very few realize how essential water is to digestion and to the digestive canal after the process of digestion is completed; and that it has physiological effects on the system generally is less widely known. There exists a great natural demand for water to carry on the normal functions of the system; for both atmosphere and heat draw moisture from the body, and a considerable amount is utilized in the processes of our daily work and in unexpected efforts. An organism composed of almost eighty per cent. of water requires a generous supply for subsistence—a supply equal to the expenditure of vitality involved in carrying on the numerous functions of body and brain.
Some day it will be discovered that water is mainly the element employed in psycho-physiological processes. Water is easily changed to air, and atmospheric air to water, in the system. The generous consumer of air and water will have a good stock of vital or of psychical force on which to draw for the process of thinking. A thinker is a creator, and he must be successful if his thoughts be rightly directed and he have an ample supply of liquid food—water.
CHAPTER IX.
When Enemas Should Be Taken.
Method is imperative in this strenuous life of ours. Nature in her universal operations seems to sanction a uniform system in our daily conduct. Had we a regular time for doing things, periodicity would be established in our sleeping, eating, bathing, defecating, work, recreation, etc. Unfortunately, we are prone to ignorance, self-indulgence, procrastination, which render us careless and reckless in regard to the common-sense conditions of normal living; and before we are fairly out of our ’teens we begin to bear a crop of proctitis, colitis, constipation, etc.
It is in this way that periodicity as to stooling is lost, and whim, convenience, or necessity takes its place. As a result, we dribble or strain under the fecal and gaseous burden. This happy-go-lucky method accounts for much of the gastro-intestinal disorder complained of by so many, who “want to die” when the painful neurasthenic blues hover around and pervade their bodies like a dense fog.