CONTRACTIONS AND CLOSURES OF THE INTESTINAL CANAL. 591 



(blind and bleeding piles) is overvalued by the laity, who usually 

 regard them as the cause and not as the result of their trouble. In 

 the same way the escape of blood from the pudic veins, or, in women, 

 from the uterine veins, may be impeded. In consequence of this, in 

 most women who are habitually constipated, there is hyperaemia of the 

 uterus, which shows itself by very abundant menstruation and uterine 

 catarrh, and which subsequently often leads to important disorders of 

 nutrition of the uterus. Thus we see that the notorious Morrison, 's 

 pills may not incorrectly be said to benefit menstrual difficulties and 

 fluor albus. Men with habitual constipation may have frequent erec- 

 tions and seminal emissions, induced by the impeded escape of blood 

 from the pudic veins ; if they were previously worried about their feel- 

 ings, they are absolutely frightened by this symptom. Lastly, the 

 pressure of the loaded intestines on the sacral plexus may cause neu- 

 ralgic pains in the legs, or, what is more frequent, a feeling of numbness. 

 The causes of habitual constipation, which does not depend on curva- 

 tures and adhesions of the intestines, or on the various forms of con- 

 striction, are rather obscure. The disease occurs more frequently in 

 women than in men, and not unfrequently develops in growing chil- 

 dren. A slow movement of the intestine appears most frequently to 

 induce it ; but there is scarcely any explanation of this sluggishness of 

 the intestinal muscles. The bad habit, of repeatedly restraining the 

 faeces forcibly, induces habitual constipation in some cases. " Sedentary 

 habits," also, such as are common to students and persons of certain 

 occupations, are likewise properly classed among the exciting causes 

 of this affection. Still it is remarkable that perseveringly walking 

 does not, by any means, render defecation as easy as might be ex- 

 pected. Patients with habitual constipation usually become indefat- 

 igable walkers, without thereby attaining the goal which is often the 

 object of their whole desire and endeavor (HenocK). In some cases, 

 the habitual constipation is due to chronic intestinal catarrh, which, 

 like chronic gastric catarrh, as we have shown, induces a sub-paralytic 

 state of the intestinal muscles, in spite of the thickening of the walls 

 of the intestines that it causes. Hence people who have led a luxu- 

 rious life often suffer from habitual constipation. We often meet per- 

 sons who, at the university, were great beer-drinkers, and were most 

 jovial and popular fellows, who, a few years later, have become ill- 

 tempered and peevish, and have no thoughts beyond whether they 

 " will have the longed-for passage to-day." Recently, inactivity of the 

 abdominal muscles has been classed among the causes of habitual con- 

 stipation, and cases have been described where the patients accustomed 

 the abdominal muscles to exercise, and were thus cured of their consti* 

 pation. The excessive stretching and relaxation of the abdomen re- 





