From the careful detail of its various properties, there is abundant reason for its favorable action upon all of the excretory organs, which co-operate in the removal of morbid materials from the system. If, however, the bowels are unusually sluggish or obstinately constipated, it is advisable, in conjunction with the "Golden Medical Discovery," to use the "Pleasant Pellets," which are also powerfully alterative, besides being mild and unirritating in their operation. They are the natural assistants of the "Discovery," working harmoniously together. They should be taken in small doses, and their use perseveringly followed, until the bowels are properly regulated by the use of the "Discovery" alone.
It has been customary to resort to powerful drastic cathartics, followed by bitters prepared in dilute alcohol. The habit is unscientific, for it is well known that alcohol deranges the functions of the digestive organs and depraves the blood, besides creating a morbid appetite. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the use of such bitters has led to a life of drunkenness, with all the woe and untold misery which attend it.
Medicines to be strictly remedial, should exert a tonic influence upon all the vital processes. Those organs which are contiguous to the liver, or connected by sympathy with it, should be assisted in the performance of their functions. Persons who are habitually subject to "bilious" attacks are pleased to find that the use of the "Discovery" and "Pellets" furnishes immunity from such onsets, and prevents their usual recurrence. Thus these remedies are preventive as well as curative.
What we have thus far recommended for the treatment of this chronic affection is within the reach of every family. Patients laboring under this disease, when complicated with other affections, require special consideration and treatment, and all such are counseled to employ only those physicians whose experience and success entitle them to confidence. Health is one of the greatest of blessings, and how to restore it when lost, is a question of vital importance.
Having successfully treated thousands of invalids who have suffered from this chronic affection, we possess abundant evidence of the curability of the disease, but we have only space to publish a few letters from persons who have been under our care, or who have used our medicines, purchased from druggists.
CONSTIPATION. (COSTIVENESS.)
Health depends very largely upon the regularity of the bowels. There should be proper alvine evacuations every day. There are few persons who have not suffered at some period of their lives from constipation of the bowels. Inattentive to the calls of nature, or a neglect to regularly attend to this important duty, sooner or later, produces disastrous results. Furthermore, it is essential to the comfort of every individual, for, when this function is not performed, there is derangement of the mental as well as of the bodily organs.
Constipation, or costiveness, as it is sometimes termed, is a functional derangement of the large intestine. This intestine is about five feet in length, and consists of the cæcum, colon, and rectum. It serves as a temporary reservoir for the excrementitial residue of alimentary matter, and for the effete materials excreted by the glands contained in its mucous coats. It is distinguished as the large intestine, because of its great size.
Habitual constipation produces many derangements, resulting from sympathy, irritation, or mechanical obstruction. By referring to Figs. 4 and 9, the reader may observe the anatomical relations which the large intestine sustains to the other abdominal organs. The ascending colon arises in the cæcum (Fig. 4), at the lower part of the abdomen, and passes over the kidney on the right side, where it begins a circuitous route around the abdominal cavity, comes in contact with the inferior surface of the liver, proceeds behind and below the large curvature of the stomach, emerges on the left side, and passes downward in front of the left kidney, where it dips into the pelvic cavity, and ends in the rectum.
If fecal matters are retained until they are decomposed, great injury follows, since the fluid portions are absorbed, conveyed into the blood, and, of necessity, corrupt it with their impurities. In this way, constipation may be the source of general derangement, but such disorder is seldom attributed to the torpid state of this intestine. There is little doubt but that it thereby imposes a great tax upon the functions of the liver, and, frequently, the fault is attributed to that organ instead of the large intestine. Sometimes the blood becomes so charged with fecal matter that its odor can be detected in the breath of the subject.