CHAPTER XXVI.

PROPER TREATMENT FOR DISEASES OF THE ANUS AND RECTUM VERY ESSENTIAL.

No doubt the readers of the preceding chapters on proctitis and its numerous symptoms—noted under separate headings—would like to know something about the home treatment for such an insidious and grave disease. Every sufferer wants to be a self-doctor. This commendable desire it is usually impossible to put into practice. If physicians so often fail to cure the ailments I have described, what can be expected of those who have no knowledge at all of diagnosis and treatment?

A skilful physician is the choicest gem of civilization, and an intelligent patient its worthy setting. Surely it is a moral crime, an inexcusable folly to tolerate a disease with its inevitable train of dire consequences, up to the point when the discomfort compels one to seek treatment. There are patients, of course, who have good and sufficient excuses for their painful predicament; they have, for example, tried persistently for relief and cure, but have failed to find a physician competent to treat their particular case. How many unskilled prescribers there are, and how glaring their shortcomings! Some hold out taking inducements to sufferers; their one object being to transfer their patients' cash to their own pocket. 'Twere charitable to consider these ignorant; but alas! many of them are poisoned by the "fakir" germ. Stuff is sold by the conscienceless, claiming to cure "piles," to "give instant relief," and promising "a complete cure in a few days"; and as to itching piles, why! "only a few applications are necessary for a cure; six boxes for five dollars"! etc.

No remedy that sufferers apply themselves can be more than a temporary relief: it cannot really cure piles, polypus, fistula, tabs, pruritus (itching)—all of them consequences of proctitis. Of course one should be thankful for the little relief to be got temporarily from advertised and drug-store drugs; nothing more than relief can be expected of them. There are indeed times when a palliative treatment will serve to tide the sufferer over a few days until he is able to consult a competent physician. But how strange it is that so many sufferers regard their anatomy and physiology so lightly as to think of using remedies, even for relief, without first undergoing a thorough examination by a competent physician. In troubles of a rectal character it is exceedingly foolhardy to allow any one to prescribe without insisting upon a thorough examination to ascertain whether there be any disease of a cancerous nature present, or what the trouble actually is, and its progress. To expect one remedy or prescription to meet all the requirements for the cure of a chronic disease of the anus and rectum and of the many complications accompanying it is hardly sensible, but that is just what a great many do expect. No one remedy in the market, or any number of them combined can effect a cure, for the simple reason that proper local treatment by a physician is of paramount importance. Unless of a traumatic (externally produced wound) origin, diseases of the anal and rectal canals are usually of fifteen, twenty or more years' incubation before the annoying symptoms become apparent. This accounts for the slight attention to the maturing trouble and for the fact that such attention can afford nothing more than a palliation or postponement. A real cure requires a combination of means, all working harmoniously for the proper length of time. Proper treatment and the proper time are the two prime requisites; and the third and final requisite is, of course, a sensible patient.

Before home treatment is to be thought of it is accordingly advisable to have an examination and a prescription for the specific local treatment necessary for a trouble like piles, fissure, polypus, tabs, itching, fistula, varicose veins, abscess, ulcer, granulation, hypertrophy, or atrophy as the case may be. The local treatment can best be aided by a combination of remedies with suitable instruments for their use between the periods of local attention by the physician. The writer of this has no cure-all to send the sufferers, although it might be to his financial advantage to have one; he is, however, always ready to advise and relieve those who cannot visit him immediately. The relief afforded often facilitates the cure by permitting a more extensive local treatment at the first visit.

The Use of Instruments for Injecting Water.

To do something at home for one's self for relief from soreness and pain due to anal and rectal diseases, a few suitable instruments are required with which specific remedies may be used, especially that excellent remedy—water.

It is unfortunate that the anal and rectal canals cannot be given rest when invaded by disease. Daily elimination of feces is a very important factor to health and to treatment. To accomplish this the very best means is water in various quantities as the case demands. It does not irritate the diseased canals—as cathartics do—but aids in the escape of imprisoned feces and gases which lodge above the region of the morbid process. Evacuation should be accomplished twice a day, by the injection at first of three or four quarts of water—thus obtaining a good daily flushing of one's sewer—and then, if advisable, gradually lessening the quantity at subsequent injections to one or two pints at a time. The temperature should be 100° to 105° or more. Some people have an idea that water at the temperature named has a remedial effect on an inflamed anus and rectum. It has none whatever; all it does is to wash away the deposits which might irritate the inflamed surface. Water at a temperature of 100° to 105° is not an especially good antiseptic; and its intestinal use should not be continued longer than to bring away the effete and fetid material which may be lodged in the colon, sigmoid flexure and rectum. In the majority of cases its use should be limited to aiding the feces to escape from their normal receptacle—the sigmoid flexure—whenever proctitis does not extend beyond the rectum. But many persons are deceived by the conduct of proctitis and are thus likely to omit the regular irrigation twice a day. They believe themselves to be in pretty good condition and do not realize that their old, implacable enemy may be excited into riot any day; in which case the insurrection may last for months and then slowly settle down to semi-quiet again, reaching finally the point of its best behavior for a short period or until again provoked.

The Use of the Recurrent Douche.

Water at a temperature of 120° to 130° properly applied is a good therapeutic agent in the treatment of proctitis. At that temperature it is an excellent antiseptic and astringent. Its continuous use for half to one hour applied with a recurrent douche brings about a contraction of the engorged and dilated blood-vessels; and accompanied by local treatment and by other remedies is the best means known for restoring the nerves to their normal function of controlling the proper circulation of blood in the diseased organ. Treatment with the recurrent douche is of course to follow, not to precede, the evacuation of the bowels; but at any time when there is a tendency toward additional evacuation on the admission of the hot water, the new douche is easily adjustable to the contingency without removal from the anal canal; it will facilitate the escape of the feces with the return flow of the water. The new recurrent douche has therefore the great advantage of promoting simultaneously both the thorough evacuation of the bowels, and the therapeutic effect of hot water.

Sitz-Bath.

There are patients who, because of years of neglect of their local ailments, are taken with severe attacks of inflammation of the anus and rectum, involving considerable prolapse, much swelling around the anus, and general local soreness and pain; all of which is often accompanied by a general disrelish of life. For this condition nothing is so good as a very hot sitz-bath, if properly adjusted to the parts and continued for about an hour at a sitting. The alleviation afforded is so decided and the local and prolonged application of hot water so restorative that it may be left to the sufferer to determine how often this bath is to be repeated. It may be taken as often as there is an inclination to do so. The sitz-bath apparatus should be scientifically adapted to the parts so that the bather will not sit lower than ten or twelve inches, thereby avoiding a straining position. During the bath there should be more or less pressure against the anal tissues, which assists the hot water in expelling the blood from the inflamed parts. From the beginning to the end of the bath the water must be as hot as the tissues will tolerate. Only a small portion of the buttocks need be immersed in the hot water.

Spring Water the Ideal Beverage.

Those who suffer from disease of the rectum, with rare exceptions, are constipated or semi-constipated, which condition in turn aggravates or disturbs the inflamed parts. To overcome this constipated condition all sorts of laxatives are taken, which will in the end do grave harm not only to the whole system, but especially to the inflamed parts, irritating them still more. There is a valuable therapeutic agent seldom taken by the constipated; in fact, it is never thought of; unfortunately the remedy is not easily to be had in its pure state by most of us, boxed as we are in cities. Sold under various names as mineral water, it is too often adulterated. 'Tis a simple remedy, and yet it has a wider range of healing power than any other; a universal solvent, applicable to all diseases and all states of health. I would write it at the head of all remedial agents: pure spring water! We do not drink enough water. If we were to imbibe at least two quarts of pure water daily we would be healthier and have better movements of our bowels. Water may be taken freely during mealtime; not, however, for the purpose of washing down half-masticated food. Alcoholic drinks, coffee and tea would better be dispensed with, also tobacco. The nervous system has enough to bear without the use of avoidable irritants.

Other Hygienic Agencies.

Too much cannot be urged as to the advisability of a proper amount of exercise, sleep, rest, food, breathing, cleanliness (internal and external), as well as and above all, pure, high-minded thoughts and serene temper—the outcome of the habit of viewing life philosophically. Care should be taken to protect the feet and body from sudden climatic changes, thus avoiding catarrhal troubles, especially of the lower bowels.

As to the wise and proper use of nature's pharmacopœia, nothing need be said here. However, I may be within my limits when I advise patients to use a little sense and not neglect disease of the lower bowel any more than they would neglect that of the eye, ear and throat. In the latter case they submit at once to an examination. Why not in the former? Let them bear in mind that the cure of chronic proctitis is no holiday job; that it is, on the contrary, a task which requires constant attention. To merely relieve the annoying symptoms that accompany it cannot be called a cure. But on the other hand relief may be the commencement of a cure. Of course the true way of looking at the subject of this disease is to regard the cure of proctitis as necessarily leading to the disappearance in time of all the other troubles that were the outcome of that ailment. Through the harmonious efforts of patient and physician, marvellous results are often obtainable.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BODY'S BOOK-KEEPING.

Man's food is as varied as his work, more varied than the climate, with one food for the luxurious and one for the poor. The majority of us take what we can get, making no complaints; even when we have a cook and a good one the same is true. The ideal diet prepared by the ideal cook no one has as yet made fashionable, but one thing is within the reach of all—cleanliness of the sewers of the body. Keep the contents of the bowels moving down and out steadily and regularly and you may eat almost any food and in almost any preparation and still be healthy.

Just as a steam-engine, running at a given rate of speed, must be supplied with fuel sufficient to maintain that speed, so the human body must have the requisite food to maintain the speed of civilized society and business, and replace the waste of the tissues; otherwise decline sets in and the reserve store of strength is exhausted. How shall we determine the proper amount and kind of food for the various ages, sexes, and conditions of life?

A leading authority says that the character and amount of the daily excreta furnish suggestions as to the required food supply. (Kirk's Physiology, p. 208.) These excreta are found to be carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen in great part, with some sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, sodium, etc. A summary is given (ibid., p. 432) of the expenditure for twenty-four hours:

With the proper balance between the intake and the outgo, the functions of the body will be carried on normally, but the balance must be a proper one; that is, not only must the entire waste be repaired but the correct proportions of one kind of food and another must be observed. If all the elements needed are not furnished there can be no true counterpoise.

How do we expend the energy? By the common wear-and-tear incident upon all voluntary motion, all work and recreation, carrying on the internal movements of digestion and respiration, by thinking, by loss of temperature, by indulgence of any of our functions, and by any wrong indulgence especially. Excessive use, voluntary or otherwise, will of course diminish our total capital and cut short our lives. Could we always maintain the right balance we need never die.

The importance of what has been said must now be clearly apparent. We ought to be wisely interested in choosing the proper foods for our daily needs and in having them properly prepared; we ought to know how much carbohydrates we need, how much proteids, and regulate our diet accordingly. The foods which contain nitrogen are chiefly the following: flesh of all animals, milk, eggs, leguminous fruits (peas, beans, lentils); those which contain carbohydrates chiefly are bread, starch, vegetables and especially potatoes, rice, etc.; foods supplying fat are butter, lard, fat of meat, etc. Salts are furnished in almost all other substances, but especially in green vegetables and fruits. Liquid food is obtained by water, too often neglected, and tea, coffee, beer, cider, etc.

Alcohol has no power to form tissue or to repair waste and cannot be regarded as a true food. Tea and coffee are almost entirely stimulant, not nutritious, and should be taken sparingly or not at all.

The common mistakes in diet are over-feeding or taking too much of one kind of food, and of the latter class perhaps an excess of starchy food is the most mischievous. If taken in excess, especially by the young, the starchy foods are not digested and what does not digest must putrefy: the result is a bowel distended with harmful gases. Many people eat too much nitrogenous food, with resulting plethora or gout. A great deal of vigorous exercise in the open air is required to use up such a diet.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF FOOD.

The requirements for normal digestion, assimilation and elimination are: (1) An intestinal canal clean and sound from mouth to anus; (2) nutritious food properly prepared; (3) regularity and moderation in eating; (4) free use of pure water, sufficient to forward the emulsification and assimilation of the food and the elimination of waste—whether that waste be of the residual portion of the food or of detritus of tissue; (5) a seasonably clad body, free from fatigue or loss of sleep; (6) a cheerful mind.

Every sensible person will grant that a good digestion of vegetable or animal food furnishes sufficient steam and stimulus for the physical man; that a good digestion of intellectual food (ideas) furnishes the corresponding requisites for the mental man; and that exalted sentiments are the pabulum of the spiritual.

Why over-stimulate the physical, and reflexively degrade the mental and spiritual, by indulgence in tea, coffee, beer, wine, liquors, opium, tobacco, etc.? Over-stimulation will bring on indigestion; and prostration will follow that. Remember that Nature does not carry long credit accounts.

A suggestion for the selection and preparation of physical foods is here given; this book being hardly the place for a corresponding list of mental and spiritual foods.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DIET FOR INDIGESTION.

Indigestion is a symptom of a functional disturbance or is due to a local disease in some portion of the digestive apparatus. Therefore diet must be adapted to the sensibility of the stomach and bowels, to gastric and intestinal secretions, mobility, absorption and elimination, to the abnormal increased feeling of hunger or to the absence of the sensation of hunger.

The food should be of easy solubility and offer slight resistance to the digestive juices. It should not mechanically or chemically irritate or impede intestinal peristalsis. It should not increase fermentation or putrefaction and the greater portion of it should be absorbed.

The object of diet is not to eat less food than usual but to secure more nourishment until the proper quantity is consumed each day. The restriction of foods does not mean limitation. Regular hours for meals should be religiously observed by sufferers from indigestion. The food should be thoroughly masticated. Good judgment should be used by each individual in selecting and preparing the foodstuffs; also in the amount taken at each meal, and the proper length of time to continue the diet.

You may take:

Soup—in moderate quantity: Doxsee's clam juice, and little neck clams; cream of peas, etc.; vermicelli; tapioca; tomato; clear soups of chicken, beef, mutton.

Fish: trout; bass; perch; shad; weakfish; whitefish; smelts; raw oysters.

Meat: roasted or boiled beef; mutton; venison; calf s head; tongue; sweetbread; lamb chops; squab; roasted partridge; pigeon; calf's-foot jelly; Armour & Co.'s Vigoral; Valentine's or Wyeth's beef juice, or Wiel's beef jelly.

Eggs: raw; soft-boiled; poached; omelette; eggs on toast.

Bread—all over a day old: brown; graham; gluten; rye; zwieback; crackers; cracked wheat; corn meal; hominy; wheaten and graham grits; rolled rye and oats; granose; cerealin; macaroni with toasted bread-crumbs; farina, boiled with milk; Milkine; Horlick's or Mellin's food.

Vegetables: spinach; green peas; greens; lettuce; watercress; sweet corn; asparagus; celery; artichokes; baked tomatoes; cauliflower.

Dessert: baked, roasted or stewed apples; stewed pears or peaches; baked bananas; grapes; oranges; and most ripe fruits, if fresh.

Beverages: hot, cool or cold water an hour before meals. Drink freely of the same during meal-time, but not to wash down food. Drink also: cereal coffee; buttermilk; koumiss; fresh cider; bouillon.

Avoid: coffee; tea; milk; ice-water; cocoa; chocolate; malt liquors; spirituous liquors; sweet and effervescent wines; sugar; candies; foods containing much starch; rich soups; sauces and chowders; all fried foods; hot or fresh bread; griddle-cakes; doughnuts; veal; pork; liver; kidney; hashes; stews; pickled, canned, preserved and potted meats; turkey; goose; duck; sausage; salmon; salt mackerel; cabbage; radishes; cucumbers; cole-slaw; turnips: potatoes; beets; pastry; jellies; jams; nuts.

CHAPTER XXX.

DIET FOR CONSTIPATION AND OBSTIPATION.

Diet is too often a makeshift for ignorance, or it may be an aid until the cause of indigestion is removed; or if not curable, a compromise effected on the best possible terms for continued existence. We have found out the almost universal cause for constipation, obstipation and costiveness; therefore until you can have the proper local treatment we suggest the following foodstuffs, trusting to the sufferer's judgment how much and how often to take the nourishment.

Coarse foods, stimulants and laxatives unduly excite the bowels. Avoid them if possible. Be regular in your habits as to meal-times; eat three times daily, and about an equal amount at each meal.

You may take:

Soup: all kinds of meat and vegetable soup; broth; bouillon. Reliable preparations of beef juice, jelly, etc.

Fish: all kinds, broiled or baked; raw oysters; Doxsee's clam preparations.

Meat: boiled or roasted; poultry; game, etc.

Bread: graham; brown; whole wheat; corn; rye; ginger; shredded-wheat biscuit.

Cereals: wheaten grits; wheatena; granose; oatmeal porridge; Milkine; Horlick's and Mellin's food.

Vegetables: cauliflower; spinach; beans; asparagus; carrots; onions; Brussels sprouts; tomatoes; peas; celery; cabbage.

Vegetables should be especially well cooked to render them soft and easy of digestion.

Salads: may be eaten if dressed with a generous supply of olive oil.

Dessert: oranges; melons; prunes; tamarinds; figs; apples (raw or baked); pears; plums; peaches; cherries; raisins; stewed fruit; honey; blackberries; strawberries; huckleberries; bananas.

Some may find it advantageous to eat fruit before or between meals.

Beverages: water—pure spring water preferably; if this cannot be had, get, if possible, distilled water that has been aërated; buttermilk; fresh cider; beer; ale.

Mineral waters like Hunyadi, etc., irritate the cause of constipation (proctitis) in a way similar to cathartic remedies.

Drink a tumbler or more of hot or cold water an hour before meals—preferably hot water. If the hot water be distasteful add a little salt. Drink freely of water about the temperature of 60° during the meals, but not for the purpose of emptying the mouth of food.

On retiring at night and rising in the morning sip slowly from a quarter to half pint of water (hot or cold). In the morning be sure to rinse the mouth free of the accumulated mucus before drinking the water.

The use of tea, chocolate, coffee and alcoholic drinks is so abused by those even who consider themselves temperate in their habits, that I recommend these beverages as remedies only in certain conditions of the system.

About four pints of pure water (i.e., free from all salts or other foreign ingredients) should be imbibed in twenty-four hours.

Avoid: sweets; pastry of all kinds; puddings; rice; milk; cheese; new bread; nuts; fried foods; rich gravies; farina and sago puddings; salt meats; salt fish; veal; goose; liver; hard-boiled eggs; pork; tea; tobacco; spirituous liquors; uncooked strawberries and huckleberries. Avoid also tomatoes and peaches when not fresh, as the acid generated by keeping them a few days is very irritating to an already inflamed bowel.

Avoid substances that would inflame the tissues or cause congestion of any organ of the body. If the tongue be coated avoid sugar, starchy foods and fresh milk.

CHAPTER XXXI.

COSTIVENESS, DIET, ETC.

Take anything in the way of food which the unconsciously starved person can eat without the stomach and intestines protesting too much; any of the foods recommended for constipation, indigestion, diarrhea; and take yet more food if by so doing there is a gain in flesh, after exercising much patience as to time.

Irrigate the system by imbibing freely of hot and cold water at various periods of the day. Good red wine mixed with the water drunk at meal-time may serve a good purpose in helping to enrich the blood.

Keep the pores of the skin open by bathing; and all the functions of the body active by exercise, massage, pure air, sunlight, rest, sleep and seasonable clothing.

The large intestines should be kept clean by proper amounts of water injected into them. The local cause of all the trouble should be treated by a competent physician.

And with all the efforts, continue the treatment long enough to accomplish some good and then a much longer time to get well. Do not give up treatment under which you have improved if it requires one, two or three years to accomplish what you have so well started out to do.

CHAPTER XXXII.

DIET FOR DIARRHEA.

A period marked by constipation, biliousness or poisons generated within or taken into the intestinal canal is often followed by diarrhea. Mental excitement will induce it in some persons. More often man's early and most common malady, proctitis, is the direct or indirect cause. Some forms of ulceration of the lower bowel induce diarrhea. Chronic cases of diarrhea usually follow the decline of vitality marked by the symptom of Costiveness, which means the interruption of all the functions of nutrition. The intestinal canal is then like a rubber tube with the contents hurried through it. The whole system is irritable as the result of an accumulation of secondary symptoms expressed by the word auto-intoxication.

The food should be nutritious and non-irritating to the intestinal canal.

Reliance must be placed, in severe cases, on liquid foods and beverages.

The more solid foods may be taken in limited quantity as the recovery progresses. In more acute cases it is well to stop all food for twelve or twenty-four hours.

You may take:

Liquid Food and Beverages: Drink, if possible, pure spring water. If this cannot be obtained, sterilize the water, or distil and aërate it; it must be pure and soft. Better still: drink toast- or rice-water; kefyr, four days old; koumiss; lactic-acid water; zoolak; egg lemonade; sterilized milk with one third lime-water; whortleberry wine; acorn cocoa; unfermented grape-juice.

Soup: chicken; mutton; clam; oyster broth; Doxsee's clam-juice; bouillon; Milkine; Horlick's and Mellin's food.

Meat: minced chicken; scraped beef; roast fowl; beef steak; fillet of beef; raw beef; sweetbread; raw oysters.

Eggs: lightly boiled, poached.

Cereals and Fruit: grapes at all hours, eaten without seeds or skin; arrowroot; tapioca; sago; barley mush; macaroni; rice boiled with milk; milk toast; dry toast; crackers; junket; bread pudding; egg pudding, not sweetened; hasty pudding, with flour and milk; mashed potatoes.

Avoid: pork; veal; nuts; salt meats; fish; fried foods; sugary foods; fruits, cooked or raw; oatmeal; brown and graham bread; new bread; vegetables; and most soups.

A FINAL WORD TO THOSE TO WHOM I HAVE DEDICATED THIS BOOK.

It is very evident from the perusal of this work that the symptoms of proctitis, both general and local, proceed from no trifling disease; and also that the disease may have existed for a very long time, perhaps as much as twenty, forty or more years. During the greater part of its existence all sorts of medication have been tried to allay this or that annoying prominent symptom with a hope of a cure.

At the congress of physicians that met in Paris in 1900, one of the subjects discussed was chronic constipation and their "wise" conclusion was that man needed more grease, therefore they mourned the loss of the frying-pan.

Symptoms induced by proctitis in various parts of the body are often accompanied by painful local symptoms, called piles or a "touch of the piles." Then local medication is added to the general treatment, and as usual matters go from bad to worse. Physicians consulted have been honest and kind, but with all their advice the increasing troubles continue. Your demands grow more pressing on your doctor and as a last resort he mentions a surgical operation for the removal of one or more painful local symptoms. The fright is sufficient in most cases to make the sufferer endure the ills he has rather than flee to others he knows not, even risking life itself. Others more bold submit to an examination by the surgeon, which proves so painful at the time and causes so much subsequent suffering that they are now really content not to importune any more for help.

A few in desperation make up their minds to have the local anal symptom removed regardless of the final result.

Thus millions of human beings have suffered and died and countless numbers are enduring the ills they have, not knowing of a rational and humane system of treatment; a treatment that not only removes the numerous annoying symptoms, but the cause as well; a system that will stand the test of time, of common-sense, of constant investigation to know the why and wherefore of both disease and treatment.

For over twenty years I have concerned myself with this and allied ailments, and have treated—without the use of the knife—all cases of piles, polypus, fissure, stricture, ulcerations, etc. At the present time physicians are writing me in this wise: "I want to take a course of instruction from you. I have performed some successful surgical operations on the rectum, but it is not profitable; the people will not submit to it." Another writes: "Your treatment of hemorrhoids has been brought to my notice by my friend and patient, Mr. ——. The method you practise is certainly an ideal one and seems to have been most successful in your hands, and I would like to adopt it."

To physicians and laymen interested, I will send, for twenty-five cents, my treatise on Diseases of the Anus and Rectum (entitled How to Become Strong). It contains over 100 anatomical illustrations, and 125 testimonials, and forms, therefore, a valuable adjunct to this volume.

All whose testimonials appear in the 64-page book suffered from proctitis to a greater or less extent and with the exception of a few all suffered from chronic constipation, indigestion, etc.

Surgeons usually desire strong and vigorous patients. The author asks merely for an intelligent patient, or for some one to direct the home attention necessary between treatments.

This book, as well as the one entitled How to Become Strong, and the author's other printed instructions, are the result of his desire to make his patients intelligent on the subject of the disease and symptoms for which they seek his assistance. They truly cannot know too much for their own good in this regard; an ignorant patient can not do justice either to himself or to his physician. Those who have tried all the fads and so-called cures in order to relieve their troubles will certainly appreciate what I have here presented for their study. With enlightenment comes the desire to set things right. So I have no appeal to make to the lazy: I shall leave them to their ills and their pills. And for those who appreciate the beauty of cleanliness, both external and internal, I shall write another book on that subject, including a prophecy for coming generations. Eternal vigilance is the price we must pay if we would enjoy the highest physical, mental and spiritual expression of our personalities.

Thanking the indulgent reader who has read my description of Intestinal Ills, I advise him to rewrite it in his own organism, if not in printer's ink: the world will be better for it!