40 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
The taking of enemas is hardly less unfortunate. They 
cause stretching and irritation. Many persons labor 
under the mistaken idea that they thus beneficially aid 
nature with internal ablutions. Nothing could be farther 
from the facts. The colon has been designed for the 
accommodation of its peculiar semi-solid contents 
through countless ages of evolution, and its functions are 
supervised by exquisite reflexes that act automatically; 
a far older and more effective control than by the 
recently acquired and not always happily functioning 
brain of man. Again enemas are highly irritating. An 
expert by proper ocular investigation can tell by the irri- 
tation of the bowel lining when a water enema was 
taken the day before. People take these liberties because 
the poor colon cannot feel—has no sensibility except to 
pressure, As well put a cinder in the eye to wash it out, 
or soap suds in the nose. The injuries that result are 
very real—the broken valves, the numerous small rup- 
tures of the colon that we call diverticula, the back 
pressure, the nervous irritation, what you know as bili- 
ousness, the general miserableness that results. There 
are ways of combating constipation when developed that 
require long periods of time. Mild laxatives, and even 
certain kinds of enemas at times are lesser evils, but 
most important is prevention, the education of children 
as to regularity of habit in defecation, together with 
dietary aids and energetic treatment by hygienic meth- 
ods in the early stages of the disease. 
May I presume to bring but one other subject to your 
attention, the subject of bodily statics, a great problem 
that finds only desultory consideration in a general 
superficial way on the part of most persons, but that ulti- 
mately concerns every living person, whether sick or 
whether thinking that they are well. Apropos, perhaps 
