PATHOLOGICAL HABITS 239 



know that salivation is associated in the first place with discharge 

 of the mercury from the system, but all the mercury in small 

 doses must disappear in the course of a few days, nevertheless 

 the ptyalism in some cases persists, and is noticeable for six 

 months or even a year. Some cases, at least, of persistent gastric 

 hyperacidity and excessive secretion would seem to be of the 

 same order, as also, I would suggest, the opposed habits of 

 constipation and looseness of the bowels, the one due to the 

 habit of excessive absorption of the fluid matter of the faeces, 

 the other to defective absorption. Professor Klotz has just 

 quoted to me four cases of obstinate dysentery in which un- 

 doubtedly there had been an original bacillary disturbance, but 

 repeated bacteriological examinations failed to disclose anything 

 of the nature of a specific agent. There is also a singularly 

 intractable, obstinate, and elusive intestinal condition which 

 I would suggest is most simply grasped if we regard it as a habit 

 disorder — a condition devoid of indications of bacterial nature, of 

 insidious onset, becoming progressively more severe, unassociated 

 most often with febrile disturbance, most often showing itself 

 in the female, and then in high-strung girls verging upon the 

 hysterical — I refer to mucous colitis. There is something 

 striking in the way this persists once it manifests itself, and 

 that in the absence of sign of any abiding source of irritation. 

 I would suggest that here, following upon a catarrh of moderate 

 intensity in an individual of unstable equilibrium, the cells of 

 the mucous membrane of the colon have acquired the habit of 

 excessive formation and discharge of mucin. 1 



1 After this address had been delivered Dr. Liohty, of Pittsburgh, called my 

 attention to an important paper of his (American Medicine, iv., 1902, p. 223) 

 upon the " Etiology of Mucous Colitis," in which he has drawn attention to 

 the intimate association between abdominal ptosis and mucous colitis, and in 

 which he draws the conclusion that with this ptosis and hypostasis and further 

 interference with the blood supply of part, at least, of the large bowel, a condi- 

 tion of chronic congestion of the mucosa is set up, with a disturbance of function 

 and excretion of mucus. Dr. Liohty recognizes fully that not all cases of 

 splanchnoptosis exhibit accompanying mucous colitis, pointing out that 2558 

 consecutive examinations of men, women, and children afforded 313 cases of 

 splanchnoptosis— 41 males and 272 females ; but only 21 of these had mucous 

 colitis, and he concludes that ordinarily a condition of compensation is estab- 

 lished, such as is so often seen in the circulatory system when there is disease 

 of the heart and the kidneys. When, however, this compensation is lost or 

 disturbed, the symptom-complex of mucous colitis appears, and he gives 

 instances in which, in those affected with splanchnoptosis, mucous colitis 

 showed itself in one case after an attack of acute tonsilitis, in others after typhoid 



