rm-Tiox. 



TITfTION*. 





by the retention of the teoa* beyond determinate period, nan 

 period of twenty-four hour*, constitute* the diiewe termed eotutipation ; 

 a disease often disregarded, generally considered of l.tilo im|<ortance, 

 always productive of mischief, nd very frequently terminating in * 



:..:'. 



The (lighter degree* of con*tipation, when, M U sometime* the owe. 

 they are attended with no appreciable disturbance of any function, can 

 scarcely be considered u mort>i<l; but, in general, a retention of the 

 face* beyond the period of twenty-four hours, i* attended with manifest 

 diwrder. Thin ((border is commonly increawd in proportion as the 

 retention u protracted beyond that determinate period, and in propor- 

 tion to the frequency with which such retention recurs. The amount 

 of the disorder thin induced U, however, a good <Ual influenced by 

 constitutional peculiarity ; for there are individuals who*) focal 

 evacuation* are not more frequent than once a week, or once a fort- 

 night, or even once in three weeks. Such an habitual retention of 

 the faces, in the few cases in which it occurs, generally happens in 

 f^uW who lead a sedentary life, and who take little food ami ! -- 

 exercise. 



The immediate effect* of constipation, when this disease occurs in 

 iU usual degree, in ordinary habits, is the production of some one or 

 more of those painful states, the signs of which are generally grouped 

 together under the common name of dyspepsia. There is disordered 

 appetite, which is either deficient, capricious, or voracious ; a dry, 

 coated, or clammy tongue ; thirst, or some disagreeable taste in the 

 mouth ; dulnees, heaviness, confusion, giddiness, or pain in the head ; 

 physical and mental torpor; dry and hot skin; and last, though 

 not least, an irritable temper, and a capricious or a desponding 

 mind. 



The remote effects of constipation are far more numerous and serious 

 than is commonly understood. It is impossible to enter into a full 

 detail of them iu this place. But among the most obvious may be 

 mentioned, the origin of various diseases of the skin. 



Moreover, headache and giddiness existing as severe and permanent 

 affections, and the distinct diseases called colic [COLIC], chorea [CIIORKA], 

 epilepsy, chlorosis, hysteria, haemorrhoids, and many others, have their 

 most frequent origin in on habitual and protracted retention of the 

 faces. 



The usual termination of constipation when severe, frequent, and 

 obstinate, is in inflammation of the intestines, which commonly assumes 

 the form either of ilius [luusj or enteritis [ENTERITIS], and which 

 rapidly proves fatal. 



There is, without doubt, a greater tendency to constipation in some 

 temperaments than in others ; in the melancholic, for example, than in 

 the sanguineous, and in certain individual peculiarities of constitution. 

 But this tendency would appear to be capable of being superin- 

 duced by the habitual use of certain kinds of indigestible food ; such 

 as imperfectly fermented bread, heavy pastry, as dumplings, &c. ; 

 indigestible vegetables, as cucumbers, melons, 4c. The tendency thus 

 superinduced may be greatly increased by the use of astringent and 

 stimulating beverages, sedentary habits, long indulgence in sleep, &c. 

 The immediate causes of constipation are : 1 . an impaired or torpid 

 action of the liver, in consequence of which there is either a deficient 

 or a vitiated secretion of bile. It has been stated that one ]x>rtion of 

 the bile [BILE, NAT. HIST. Div.J mixes as an essential constituent with 

 the chyle, by which the nutritive part of the food is assimilated to the 

 constitution of the blood ; the other portion of the bile consists of 

 excremeutitioiia matter, principally of a resinous nature. It is this 

 resinous portion of the bile that constitutes the proper stimulus to the 

 colon and rectum, whose office it is, by the contraction of the fibres 

 which form their muscular coat, to remove the fcecal matters from the 

 body. A certain change in the quantity or quality of the bile must 

 therefore necessarily diminish 'the action of these organs, by depriving 

 them of the stimulus on which their action mainly depends. 2. Torpor 

 of the muscular coat of the alimentary canal itself, and more especially 

 of that portion of it which constitutes the large intestines. 3. The 

 production and accumulation of flatus in these organs, by which their 

 thin parietes are distended, and even a mechanical obstacle is afforded 

 to the paesage of the ficces. 



The treatment of constipation should always have in view two 

 object* : 1. The immediate removal of the impacted faces ; and 2. The 

 change of the pathological condition of the system in general, or 

 of the alimentary canal in particular, on which the ficcal retention 

 depends. 



foNSTITl'TION, a term often used by persons at the present day 

 without any precise notion of what it means. Such a definition of a 

 constitution, if it were offered as one, might be defended ax 

 good with many other definitions or descriptions which are ii 

 in the terms used whenever a constitution is spoken of. 



The constitutions which are most frequently mentioned are the 

 English constitution, the constitution of the several states composing 

 the North American Union, the federal constitution, by which these 

 same state* are bound together, and various constitutions of the 

 Kuropean continent, which have hardly been permanent enough to be 

 submitted to an accurate investigation. 



The rogue notion of a constitution is that of certain fundamental 

 rules or law* by which the general form of administration in a 

 country is regulated, and in opposition to which no other 



fundamental rules or laws, or any rules or laws, can or ought to be 



The : of a constitution cannot be obtained without first 



obtaining a notion of sovereign power. The sovereign power in any 

 state is that power from which all laws properly so called proceed ; it 

 is that power which commands and can enforce obedience. Such a 

 power, being sovereign or supreme, is subject to no other power, and 

 cannot therefore be bound by any rules laid down, either by thoeo 

 who have at any previous time enjoyed the sovereign power in the 

 same community, or by any maxims or rules of conduct practised or 

 recommended by its predecessors in power, whether those ntles or 

 mTim be merely a matter of long usage or solemnly recorded in any 

 written instrument The sovereign power for the time i* SIM 

 and can make what laws it pleases without doing any illegal act, and, 

 "ix-akin;,-. also, without doing any unconstitutional act I'or 

 this word constitution, taken in its strongest sense, can never mean 

 more than a law made or a usage sanctioned by some one or 

 possessed of sovereign power, which law or usage has for many 

 generations been observed by all those who have successively held 

 the sovereign power in the same country. To modify or destroy sxich 

 a rule or law might be unwise, as being an act in opposition to that 

 which many successive generations had found to be a wise and useful 

 law ; it might be dangerous as being opposed to that to whu-h the 

 prejudices of many generations hod given their sanction ; and it might 

 lead to resistance on the part of the governed, if either tln-ir "wn 

 interest or their passions were strong enough to lead them to risk a 

 contest with the .sovereign power. If (as would generally be admitted) 

 the assembled parliament of Great Britain and Ireland possess the 

 sovereign power, there is no act which they could do whk-h would be 

 illegal, as every body must admit : and further, there is no possible 

 act which they could do which would be unconstitutional, for such act 

 would be no more than repealing some law or usage having the force 

 of law which the mass of the nation regarded with more than usual 

 veneration, or enacting something at variance with such law or usage. 

 For example, if the next assembled parliament should abolish l>. 

 by jury in all cases, except criminal matters, or where the crown is 

 the prosecutor, such on act might be called by some illegal, uncon- 

 stitutional. and unwise. But it would not be called illegal 1 

 person who bad fully examined into the meaning of the word law : it 

 would not be called unconstitutional by any man who, having called it 

 illegal, wished to be consistent with himself: it OOuld -nly properly 

 be called wise or unwise by those who had reflected - on the 



nature of the institution and its operations to know whether such a 

 modification would do more good or harm. 



The words constitutional and unconstitutional appear to be only 

 strictly applicable to such a case as the following : where the sovereign 

 power being invested in one, or two, or five hundred, or all the males 

 of an independent political community who are above a certain age, 

 or in any other number in such a community, lays down certain rules 

 to regulate the conduct of those to whom the sovereign power intrusts 

 the legislative functions. Such ore the Constitutions of the 

 states composing the North American Union, and such is the Con- 

 stitution of the Federation of these several states. In these - 

 states the people, in the mass, and as a general rule, are the sovereign. 

 The people assembled by their delegates, named for- that esj 

 purpose, have framed the existing Constitutions ; and they change the 

 Constitutions in the same way whenever the majority of the people, 

 that is, when the sovereign, chooses to make such change. 



These Constitutions lay down certain rules, according to which the 

 legislative, executive, and judicial functionaries must be chosen ; they 

 fix limits to their several powers, both with respect to one another, 

 and with respect to the individuals who compose the sovereign. 

 They do ordain and declare the future form of government. 

 example, the Constitution of Virginia of 1776, declares "that all 

 ministers of the Gospel of every denomination shall be incapable of 

 being elected members of either House of Assembly, or of the I'rivy 

 Council." The same rule, we believe, forms a part of the recently 

 amended Constitution of the same state. If the Virginia legislature 

 were to pass on act to enable clergymen to become members of the 

 House of Assembly or of the I'rivy Council, such an act would be 

 unconstitutional, and no one would lie bound to obey it. The 

 judiciary, if such a matter came before it, would, in the discharge of 

 its duty, declare it unconstitutional, and such co-called law could 

 have no further effect than if any unauthorised body of men had m:,.l,- 

 the rule. 



A constitution then is nothing more than an act of the BOY. 

 power, by which it delegates a port of its authority to certain persons, 

 or to a body, to be chosen in a way prescribed by Act of Constitution, 

 which at the same time fixes in a general way the powers of the body 

 to which a part of the sovereign power is thus delegated. And the 

 sovereign power changes this Constitution when. -v.-r it pleases, and in 

 doing so acts neither constitutionally nor unconstitutionally, but 

 simply exercises its sovereign power. No body can act un. 

 tutionally but a body which has received authority from a higher 

 power, and acts contrary to the terms which fix that antl. 

 Wherever then there is a sovereign power, consisting cither of one, 

 as the Autocrat of Russia, of three members, king, lords, and commons, 

 as in England (provided these tlm< ilie complete 





