In animals, offensive egesta are evidence of digestive disturbance owing to some unintelligent feeding on the part of attendants; in humans the cause and effect of offensive excreta are the same.
When a race-or work-animal shows digestive disturbance the least intelligent owner or keeper knows that it is not fit for work or racing, and yet this symbol of unfitness is common to the human race.
One of the most noticeable and significant results of economic nutrition gained through careful attention to the mouth-treatment of food, or buccal-digestion, is, not only the small quantity of waste obtained but its inoffensiveness. Under best test-conditions the ashes of economic digestion have been reduced to one-tenth of the average given as normal in the latest text-books on Physiology. The economic digestion-ash forms in pillular shape and when released these are massed together, having become so bunched by considerable retention in the rectum. There is no stench, no evidence of putrid bacterial decomposition, only the odour of warmth, like warm earth or "hot biscuit." Test samples of excreta, kept for more than five years, remain inoffensive, dry up, gradually disintegrate and are lost. The following observation by an eminent eye specialist and litterateur illustrates the opening paragraph of this chapter.
PERIODICITY
The question of "when" or "how often" the solid excreta should be voided or released is one that immediately presents itself when the subject is under discussion. The common opinion is that "once-a-day" periodicity is the proper and only healthy thing, and should a day pass there would be immediate fear of "constipation."
Under the best test conditions, before referred to, the ash accumulated in sufficient quantity to demand release only at the end of six, eight, or ten days, the longer periods of rest being the evidence of the best economic and health results.
Under ordinary conditions of carelessness and strenuous environment, say an exciting and exacting city occupation, twice a week is as often as one should accumulate a deposit of digestion-ash and feel sure that the strain on the system is not excessive and dangerous. Young people seem to thrive even when delivering daily a large quantity of smelly excreta; but it is an abuse of the "ten-horse reserve"[10] with which the human engine is supplied; and along in the "forties" or the "fifties" or the "sixties" the body shows signs of premature wear when it should be but in its prime.
Another important matter should be mentioned in this exchange of sanitary confidences. When the ashes of digestion are dumped the body should assume the shape of the letter Z. It is the natural position of primitive man (squatting on his heels), and the body was originally constructed on that plan. If otherwise poised (sitting erect) the delivery of digestion-ash is performed with the same difficulty as would be experienced when trying to force a semi-solid through a bent or a kinked hose.
The publication of the observation of Dr.——, here following, is a breakaway from the prudery of a diseased and disgusting age,—a protest jointly shared by the scientific observer and the voluntary test-subject, whose only aim in the pursuit of the study to "a finish" is the ultimate benefit of the human race.