CHAPTER VIII.

METHODS OF STOMACH CLEANSING.

Lavage is a term restricted to irrigation of the stomach--a term that has become more or less popular of late with physicians, but is not so popular with those who have to swallow a rubber stomach tube, or with the anxious mother or friends who are usually not permitted to be present on such occasions because of the disturbed and cyanotic appearance of the patient--an appearance produced by the introduction of the catheter. Much can be said, however, of the good results following irrigation of the stomach by the employment of the stomach rubber tube, and in a special class of cases its use is imperative.

But my purpose in this chapter is to advocate the drinking of water as the means _par excellence_ for effective irrigation of the assimilative and eliminative organs, and to make it plain that this form of irrigation is essential for the preservation of health and the relief and cure of chronic inactivity of the principal organs of the system. Usually the drinking of water at regular intervals is sufficient; but in exceptional cases a generous drinking will result in a complete unloading, which can be accomplished with ease and with little loss of time.

Should your stomach be actually performing its office, the suggestions I am about to give will, if followed, keep it sweet, clean, and in good condition, and will also flush all the tissues of the body as well.

The first duty on rising in the morning should be that of flushing the colon, as previously recommended, and flushing the stomach, as now recommended. Take one or two goblets of water (about eight ounces each) at a temperature most agreeable, which, however, should not be ice cold. An hour or half an hour later, during the breakfast, take one goblet of milk and water or two of water alone, when the mouth is free from food. About eleven o’clock in the forenoon, one or two goblets of spring or distilled water, at its natural temperature, should be drunk to cleanse the stomach, duodenum, kidneys, etc., and to flush the tissues of the body. At the noon meal one or two goblets, and at four or five in the afternoon a similar amount, should be drunk--the latter as a cleanser before the evening meal, at which about a pint or more is drunk to aid in emulsifying the food, as at the breakfast and noon repasts. As a rule, besides the amounts drunk at meal-time, there should be consumed as much as two quarts daily, and the best time for this is when the stomach is empty, or when it ought to be empty. At bedtime, one or more glasses may be drunk if one does not suffer from inconvenience from a full bladder during the sleeping hours.

One should make water-drinking a habit, like eating, sleeping, defecating, etc. Water-drinking should be performed at regular periods during the day. System is as essential for the harmonious working of the organs as it is for the relations of the departments in a business, or of the details of any particular department. The guide to the order and temperature to be adopted is _agreeableness_. Find out by experiment what is most agreeable and beneficial to you, and continue the practice with slight variations adapted to the changes of the seasons and the conditions of the system. There must, however, be some training done in most cases, and what is not agreeable at first may become so.

All persons suffering from proctitis and colitis and their symptoms, as described in the previous chapters of this work and in _Intestinal Ills_, will require, now and then, if not under treatment, special irrigation of the stomach to remove fermentative matter, particles of undigested food, and tenacious, ropy mucus before the next meal is taken. Otherwise the condition will be made doubly bad, for the fresh material is piled on top of the unduly retained contents of the stomach. As evidence of our civilization, we clean pots and kettles before the next meal. We even clean our fingers before, during, and after the meal. Teeth, mouth, and face get their proper cleansing. Why should we suppose that stomach, duodenum, and kidneys, which receive all sorts of stuff, should remain clean without an occasional flushing? They need rinsing out after brewing the wine of life. The water drunk between meals not only cleanses the organs through which it passes but irrigates the whole system, keeping a normal amount of water in all the tissues, which is as necessary for the maintenance of health as is the due supply of water to the plant in your conservatory.

Observe the large percentage of human beings that are anemic, sallow, clay-colored, or white--a few obese, but the many spare, lean, gaunt--all of them expressing the disgust of the soul in having such an abiding-place. If all the organs and tissues of the body were kept flushed, what a fresh and inviting spot the soul would have for the cultivation here on earth of the arts of life!

Water is the wholesomest of all drinks. It quickens the appetite and strengthens the digestion. It is the most effective agent in the work of elimination--in ridding the system of waste material. Properly taken, it prevents the undue clogging of the organs and tissues, and tends to cure or relieve those that had become clogged, and it does this by washing away the substances for which the system has no further use, and which if they remained would poison it.

It is said that if water be drunk freely during a meal the gastric juice will become diluted or washed away. A similar objection is offered concerning the use of the enema. The horse, it is alleged, should have more sense than to drink from three to six gallons of water and almost immediately thereafter eat a peck or more of oats and a quantity of hay, for it ought to know that there is no room for food with such an amount of water in the stomach. If such objectors could but see the horse smile at such arguments--for it secretly knows that the water does not _remain_ in its stomach, and that its gastric juice is naturally strong and needs dilution--they would stand aghast. Would we not be better off if we were not influenced by fool talk like the above advice to the horse, especially as regards our internal economy?

The stomach, like the freight station, can accommodate only a limited amount. Its contents must be rapidly dispersed, and every muscular contraction and every respiration gives it an impulse. Disease and lack of irrigation will occasion an accumulation or congestion of the contents in the gastro-intestinal canal, and then the victim of slow transit complains of indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, uric acid, and of many other ills. Your foul, furred tongue is a very good indication of the trouble below, so it is wise to examine it in the morning to learn your interior condition. Many persons scrape their tongue with a knife because of heavy coating and offensive odor and taste. Dyspeptics of this order need a thorough internal bath from above (per os) and from below (per anus).

Some that suffer from undue gastric retention and indigestion will find relief by flushing the colon and the stomach, as herein specifically directed. Others may find it desirable to start with a mild laxative and an intestinal wash-out with hot water in which some antiseptic or stimulant has been dissolved. The special stomach cleansing is accomplished by the rapid drinking of one tumbler of hot water after another, until a pint or more is taken into the stomach, or until a sensation of vomiting is felt, which may be encouraged by putting the end of the finger down the throat as far as possible or the end of a long lead-pencil wrapped in a little muslin. After as much of the contents of the stomach as is desired is thus cast forth, drink freely of water again, as much as you may think proper, which will be discharged into the duodenum. If this gastro-cleansing has occurred near meal-time omit the meal altogether, and in an hour or two drink as much water as is agreeable, to make sure of a thorough washing out of the erstwhile neglected receptacle--the stomach. This special washing out of the stomach may be repeated as often as occasion demands it. It frequently happens with some persons that an hour after a meal there is a hint that all is not well. This may be concealed or corrected by drinking a goblet or two of water, which practice will permit the brew to go on without further attention to the vat.

Water may be taken at all times of the day or night if occasion arises for its therapeutic effect in addition to its regular period of use. Usually physic, pepsin, soda, charcoal, whiskey, etc., are kept within reach, and are resorted to on such occasions with the thought that one or more of them will do the work. They will not, however, any more than red paint will act as an antidote to poor health by painting the cheeks with it. Water, hot water, especially when used plentifully, is the only solvent of dirt.

Very few realize how essential water is to digestion and to the digestive canal after the process of digestion is completed; and that it has physiological effects on the system generally is less widely known. There exists a great natural demand for water to carry on the normal functions of the system; for both atmosphere and heat draw moisture from the body, and a considerable amount is utilized in the processes of our daily work and in unexpected efforts. An organism composed of almost eighty per cent. of water requires a generous supply for subsistence--a supply equal to the expenditure of vitality involved in carrying on the numerous functions of body and brain.

Some day it will be discovered that water is mainly the element employed in psycho-physiological processes. Water is easily changed to air, and atmospheric air to water, in the system. The generous consumer of air and water will have a good stock of vital or of psychical force on which to draw for the process of thinking. A thinker is a creator, and he must be successful if his thoughts be rightly directed and he have an ample supply of liquid food--water.