362 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



It has to be discounted accordingly, and yet there is no 

 doubt that constipation does much harm. Those who 

 are most nearly immune to evil consequences are the 

 small eaters. The " Fletcherite " who practises pro- 

 longed mastication and subsists on the lowest possible 

 ration may have only one or two evacuations a week 

 and still feel well and make a creditable showing when 

 tested for mental and muscular capacity. He is saved 

 from auto-intoxication by the small amount and dry 

 character of the intestinal content. 



The more liberal feeder is safer if he adheres to the 

 time-honored rule of one movement a day. Regularity 

 is not an absolute disproof of a constipated condition 

 for there may be an undesirable lag in the progress of 

 material along the canal. Not only should there be a 

 daily unloading of the colon, but the feces should corre- 

 spond with the intake of the previous day rather than 

 of some day farther back. There is probably a great 

 difference between the maximum and the minimum rate 

 of travel along the individual intestines of a group of 

 people who all consider themselves free from constipa- 

 tion. The slower the rate of advance the larger the 

 amount of matter present at a given time to give rise 

 to poisons. 



It may even happen that a state of constipation shall 

 have symptoms of diarrhea. There may be heavy ac- 

 cumulations in the colon which its contractions are too 

 weak to displace and a catarrhal discharge from the -irri- 

 tated regions may create an entirely false impression. 

 The advice of a good physician may be needed to de- 

 termine what course shall be pursued. 



The old-time doctor gave a powerful cathartic on 

 almost every occasion. Many of the slight, nameless 

 illnesses we surfer, especially in childhood, yield imme- 

 diately to this measure. The quick return of normal 

 feeling seems to favor the view that the trouble was 

 an auto-intoxication and that the toxic matter has 

 been adequately removed, but it is the part of wisdom 



