The Requirements of Good Health.—There are certain fundamental basic requirements which are essential to good health: fresh air, good water, a reasonable amount of physical and mental exercise, nutritious food, freedom from unnecessary and unreasonable worry, frequent bathing, and a daily movement of the bowels. The reason why constipation is of such serious importance is because it is the only basic requirement of good health that afflicts a large majority of the race at the same time. The health of so many is being undermined by this one affliction, that it dominates all other factors that have any bearing upon posterity. A woman may enjoy all the essential conditions necessary to good health, yet she may be constipated, and the presence of this condition will undermine, in her constitution, all the benefits she derives from her advantageous environments. It will do more; it will be responsible for the disposition,—the temperament,—of that woman. The natural disposition of that woman may be an amicable one; if it were allowed to express itself naturally it would be kind, gentle, considerate, affectionate. No woman, however, the victim of chronic constipation, can preserve an equable temperament or an amicable disposition. It is impossible—with her nerves being constantly poisoned—that she can hold the symptoms of that condition in abeyance. She must be irritable and nervous and sick of herself and everything and everybody. The home as a direct result suffers; its atmosphere is not one of contentment and peace and affection. Constipation, therefore, blights the home and the influence of one blighted home may have a far-reaching effect on the story of the human race. It is responsible also for that woman's mental attitude outside the home. Instead of exerting an optimistic influence, her whole existence is a message of pessimism and discouragement. Multiply these influences and messages to correspond with the prevalence of the disease and we have a condition that is tremendously significant, a condition that is really a pressing economic issue. A constipated woman is an anti-eugenist—a eugenic atrocity.
We have no desire to create a false impression or to build up a foolish fear. Are we justified in regarding this as one of the most important, if not the most important, disease condition; the most menacing physical vice, which the human race has to combat? Let us offer the following brief facts in witness of our stand:
The Cost of Constipation.—It has been estimated that consumption (the great white plague) kills one-tenth of all the human race. Cancer kills half as many, or one in every twenty. Constipation, and the diseases which are caused directly by it, kills one in every three of all the people on the civilized globe.
Constipation has been responsible for the expenditure of millions of dollars in advertising in the newspapers alone,—more, probably, than has been spent in advertising remedies for all other diseases combined. Do you suppose this money was a donation? Do you suppose these keen, alert interpreters of the spirit of the times, the up-to-date business men, were not and are not aware that constipation is the "universal disease"?
Every drug store, in every civilized spot on earth, has its shelves loaded down with constipation remedies; dinner pills, liver pills, cathartic pills, tablets in all possible coatings and combinations, mineral waters from a multitude of springs, aperient drinks by the dozen, laxative teas and cordials, cathartic oils and emulsions. If the demand for these articles should cease most of the drug stores would close up.
Many millions of dollars have been made and are being made by various men and concerns, who have devised ingenious mechanical agencies which are supposed to cure, and in curing renew the lost health caused by constipation. We have in mind in this connection, a man who conceived the ingenious plan of putting the opening of an ordinary fountain syringe in the middle instead of at the end and made a fortune out of it. In this opening he places an upright nozzle, and instead of hanging the bag up and allowing the water to run into the bowel, he has the patient sit on the bag and thereby the water is forced into the bowel. He has written a two-hundred page book on the advantages of this idea, and his "literature" contains the names of famous men and women in all walks of life who use his device. The name of one of the famous judges of the Supreme Court of the United States was there; another was the name of a popular operatic beauty who writes for the daily press little essays on "How to be beautiful!" and "How to keep well!" He deserves his success. He is an emancipator and has doubtless done a great deal of good. His success demonstrates, beyond contradiction, the prevalence of the malady under discussion, and it must be remembered that he is only one of hundreds who garner from the same ample harvest.
If we could estimate in value the economic loss sustained by the race because of the inefficiency of the victims of intestinal intoxication, due to constipation, the sum would be colossal. Even then it would only represent the direct economic deficiency—it would not express, nor could any figure adequately represent, the indirect loss sustained by the race because of the temperamental characteristics, which are the products of intestinal poisoning, and which produce domestic tragedies and economic failures.
Has this array of evidence any meaning, or does it just happen to be so? We leave it to the reader; if it stimulates thought, or pricks a conscience it will have done its duty.
Constipation and Social Exigencies.—The cause of constipation in women, whose social station commands every sanitary, hygienic, and dietary luxury, is their method of living, the food they eat, and the negligence which is almost obligatory because of social exactions. If constipation did not so frequently accompany "good" living (which is the modern name for overeating and drinking) we would have thousands and thousands of healthy, robust, contented women, fit and willing to assume the onerous duties concomitant with motherhood. All their enthusiasm, however, is expended in the effort to keep "in the ring," to overcome the effects of the poison of constipation, to preserve their youth and freshness, to undo what neglect has accomplished. It is because of the failure of this simple function that my lady seeks the masseur, the facial artist, the society doctor, the beauty expert, and the thousand and one agencies, which an extravagant and profligate age has made necessary to foster the efficiency of its votaries.
I am optimistic, however, regarding the future. I believe the human race is improving, despite the disadvantageous surroundings and conditions which hamper honest effort and stultify truth. A higher efficiency is the goal, and the intention is to obtain this desideratum by fair and by just means. There is an awakening, an unrest, a groping for knowledge in almost every field of human endeavor, and there is none in which the yearning for fact, for truth, for instruction, is stronger and keener, than in the world-wide movement in the interest of a better motherhood, and in a more serious study of child life. It is an encouraging sign, a hopeful promise, of what the future has in store.