262 PHYSIC 



and course being alike affected by the existence or non- 

 existence of the coccygeal excretion. 



It would not be too much to say that the prevailing 

 habits of modern civilisation, in so far as they are seden- 

 tary, largely pre-dispose to, and to a great extent excite, 

 both these classes of diseases, inasmuch as the continued 

 local pressure of the sitting position results in more or 

 less closing the excretory mechanism or vasculature of the 

 gland, with the effects that coccygodynia from retention, 

 and haemorrhoidal engorgement of the peri-anal structures 

 from transudation through the walls of that vasculature, 

 sooner or later begin to be experienced to a greater or 

 lesser extent, according to the particular occupation or 

 "walk in life." Per contra, we observe that the savage, 

 and those who are much engaged on their feet in their 

 daily occupation, as well as those who can live with a 

 minimum of exertion, but adopt, in their frequent periods 

 of rest, the habit of resting on their ' ' hunkers," suffer 

 much less from these ailments. We observe, further, that 

 the tailed animal, and our nearest neighbours in the animal 

 scale, do not seem to suffer much, if at all, from these 

 diseases, and why? because these animals are possessed of 

 a different method, and perhaps increased facilities, for 

 eliminating their residual cerebro-spinal fluid along their 

 caudal appendages, and through peri-caudal eliminatory 

 mechanisms or sudoriferous glands. The horizontal posi- 

 tion, moreover, assumed by most of the animals in 

 question, must also do away to a great extent with the 

 necessity for such an arrangement as exists in man because 

 of their entirely different relationship to the incidence of 

 gravitation and biological hydrostatics, if we may be 

 permitted the use of the phrase. 



What man gains in dignity through his erect bearing 

 he therefore, to some extent, pays for, or forfeits, by the 

 addition to his category of diseases of these somewhat 

 distinctively, if subsidiary, human ailments. 



Another, and a very troublesome ailment of the region 

 in question, is fistula in ano, which may, likewise, be 

 claimed as flowing out of and evolved from its peculiar 

 anatomical position and surroundings ; thus the perineal 

 abscess from which it usually results is for the most part, 



