The diagnostic error of mistaking effect for cause, however, is frequently made. Patients are treated for one of the secondary symptoms—say uric acid—with a view to abate that disorder and restore health, when treatment for the specific cause of con­sti­pa­tion—proctitis (inflammation of the anus and rectum)—would restore the patient to his normal vigor. Pale, anemic sufferers from con­sti­pa­tion are often told that the restoration of their blood to its normal state will effect a complete cure. No idea could be further amiss, for if the poisoned victims take coal oil, fish oil, malt compounds, iron, etc., as tonics, into a disordered stomach and unclean bowels, how can anything more than imaginary relief be obtained? Is it not evident that the chief disorder, proctitis, the main cause of the trouble, has in no way been reached?

In other complications arising from con­sti­pa­tion, a favorite diagnosis is one of the secondary symptoms—“atony” of the bowels, liver, or kidneys. In these cases nux vomica and various poisonous compounds are given, but here also it stands to reason that the administering of remedies for symptoms cannot effect a cure of a chronic local disease of the anus, rectum, or colon. Then, again, by way of variety, a diagnosis of “uric acid” is made for which irritant drugs are administered to increase the eliminating or excretory action of the bowels and kidneys. It is utter folly and absurdity to attempt the cleansing of the intestinal tract by laxatives, cathartics, purgatives, exercise, etc., and to make the kidneys and liver, overtaxed from foul bowel products, do still more work by giving medicines to increase the urinal and biliary secretions.

It does not require a knowledge of the principles of physiology and pathology to know that no sufferer from chronic con­sti­pa­tion can be permanently benefited if any or all of the secondary symptoms already noted be treated with the usual list of drugs and the cause ignored.

Much stress is laid upon the quantity and quality of food consumed by most people, and many generalizers attribute chronic con­sti­pa­tion, uric acid, etc., to this very thing. Surely the average person knows that too much or too little food taken at regular intervals is not conducive to good health—a view that I have found borne out by a large majority of my patients, who rarely overstepped the limits and knew when a diminution in the supply of nourishment was advisable.

In the last analysis, the principal cause of ill health is lack of elimination of the excretory organs. When the bowels fail to do their proper work, the functions of the other organs of the body become correspondingly affected and impaired, and general debility ensues.

In previous chapters, also in my book, Intestinal Ills, I have made plain the causes contributing to chronic con­sti­pa­tion and the use of enemas and their origin. Prehension and elimination are two subjects that are vital to the welfare of man. If the eliminating power of the intestinal canal is normally active, the fortunate individual may eat abundantly, or really in excess of the requirements of the system, and still escape any ill effects, such as indigestion, biliousness, acid in the urine, etc. The hearty consumer of food whose bowels eliminate properly may suffer a loss of appetite, but it will not be accompanied with foulness of the digestive apparatus.

When all the organs of the body perform their functions in a normal manner, no part of the structure is in immediate need of repair. Every organ whose function consists in building tissues, muscles, or some other part of the body, having a sufficient supply of reserve nutriment on hand, makes known this state throughout the organism; hence there is no craving for food, no appetite, although the tongue, stomach, and intestines are in a normal condition. In this state of surplus of nourishment the person may omit a few meals or partake sparingly until the expenditure is equal to the income. But such physiological happiness is not for the person whose intestinal canal and system are clogged and foul from undue retention of excrementitious material, causing no desire for food, while all the atomic builders of the body are wanting nourishment and protesting through the nervous system against their impoverished condition.

Sufferers from self-poisoning, as described in this chapter, should irrigate the system thoroughly by frequent drinking and by copious injections of water into the bowels. The action of the enema if properly given and the drinking of water that is pure or distilled increase the quantity of urine and diminish the renal congestion, while increasing the eliminative action of the skin.

Irrigation of the bowels for fifty minutes or more with hot water (120 to 125 degrees) increases the action of the kidneys. Hot irrigation (125 to 135 degrees) is especially recommended to increase the discharge of urine and the action of the skin, and should be continued for sixty minutes or more. The Intestinal Recurrent Douche, described in a subsequent chapter, is an excellent instrument for the employment of hot water to produce diuresis and diaphoresis.

The Chemung Spring Water and Clynta Double-Distilled Water, sold in New York, are excellent drinking waters and can be obtained at a moderate price.