CHAPTER XX 



A FACTORY THREATENED WITH DECAY 



In the two preceding chapters we followed the shadow of 

 a bismuth breakfast through two great living chemical 

 laboratories ; in this chapter we are to trace the shadow 

 of the same breakfast as it passes along the third and 

 final chamber of the alimentary system — the great bowel. 

 Our friend has been on his usual diet since last we ex- 

 amined him ; a light lunch which followed his bismuth 

 breakfast, and a dinner taken in the evening were free from 

 any substance which is opaque to X-rays ; his bismuth 

 meal is the only one of the three which will throw a 

 shadow. We are now to examine him in the morning 

 following as he sits down to breakfast. Although twenty- 

 four hours have elapsed, a dense garland-like shadow, 

 appearing as if suspended within the cavity of the 

 abdomen, shows us that the bismuth breakfast, or what 

 remains of it, is still retained within the great bowel 

 (fig. 43). The black outline of the great bowel is seen 

 commencing at the caecum in the right flank, ascending 

 in the right loin, and then crossing the belly about the 

 level of the navel. We can follow a twist which is made 

 as the left loin is reached, where the shadow tapers almost 

 to a pencil as it descends towards the left groin. The 

 shadow swung across the belly is broken, as if composed 

 of large jet beads strung on a string. 



We saw the outline of the bismuth breakfast begin to 

 form in the caecum at mid-day ; by tea-time — nine hours 

 after the meal was taken — all of it had passed into the 

 great bowel. The lunch and dinner which followed this 



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