CHAPTER IX.

WHEN ENEMAS SHOULD BE TAKEN.

Method is imperative in this strenuous life of ours. Nature in her universal operations seems to sanction a uniform system in our daily conduct. Had we a regular time for doing things, periodicity would be established in our sleeping, eating, bathing, defecating, work, recreation, etc. Unfortunately, we are prone to ignorance, self-indulgence, procrastination, which render us careless and reckless in regard to the common-sense conditions of normal living; and before we are fairly out of our ’teens we begin to bear a crop of proctitis, colitis, constipation, etc.

It is in this way that periodicity as to stooling is lost, and whim, convenience, or necessity takes its place. As a result, we dribble or strain under the fecal and gaseous burden. This happy-go-lucky method accounts for much of the gastro-intestinal disorder complained of by so many, who “want to die” when the painful neurasthenic blues hover around and pervade their bodies like a dense fog.

The insidious manner in which proctitis, colitis, constipation, and self-poisoning progress from mild through medium to severe stages does not, generally, alarm the victim of intestinal neurasthenia until many years have elapsed, and one or more of the vital organs have become diseased, and the whole system is thoroughly under its toxic effects. Thus, slowly, are the various segments of the gastro-intestinal canal changed to an abnormal condition.

Suppose the tissues of one of your arms and hands were inflamed, constricted, or swollen, and that the nerves of motion were uncertain, shaky, and “kinky,”--all of which conditions we often find in the digestive apparatus,--and that finally recovery takes place under persevering and patient treatment; how soon, think you, could a sensible person expect the limb thus affected to become as useful as its companion that had never been disturbed by disease?

Unfortunately, we have not two sets of bowels. Ocean steamers are equipped with two sets of motion-producing engines, so that the disability of one will result in no loss of speed. When man places as much commercial value on himself as he does on his machines or on a boat, he will either induce Nature to furnish him with an extra set of energy-producing organs, or he will take the best possible care of the only one she vouchsafes to him--a care that extends from os to anus.

Civilized man does, indeed, take a little notice of a sore mouth (although indifferent about an unclean one), and will even try hard to have it heal, because a sore mouth may be _seen_, and is likely to disfigure him. But a sore anus and rectum may, for all he seriously cares, play their painful and poisonous pranks until he is put to bed disabled or is sent to an asylum--or to the final inn where all diseases of the body cease from troubling and the weary organs are at rest.

To re-establish that normal régime of physiological relations called health, after many years of perverse relations and disorderly practices, obviously requires time and intelligent, faithful attention to prescribed conditions.

The factors or causes that militate against the removal of curable diseases are:

(1) The neglect of a local disorder until it has had time to exhaust the general vitality of the system.

(2) Inattention on the part of the patient after he has obtained temporary or partial relief.

(3) The victim arbitrarily setting his own time limit for the cure of the disease.

(4) His wilful disobedience of prescribed rules.

(5) Inability to realize the importance of having the cause removed, as well as the local symptoms.

Confining attention for the present to proctitis and colitis, I wish to impress the patient, as well as the physician, with the fact that no better measure for relieving or removing these undermining disorders can be adopted than the regular practice, twice or thrice daily, of intestinal irrigation by means of enemas. The persistent use of the enema is directly influential in relieving and removing the symptoms of such disorders. These symptoms may be piles, prolapse, skinny tabs, fissure, dull pains, soreness, itching channels, stricture of the anus and rectum, ulceration, abscess, fistula, cancer, etc.

In the early history of ulcerative proctitis and colitis, the local symptoms at the anal vent may not be noticeable; yet the disease may be quite well developed for six or nine inches along the bowels. The early or more obscure symptoms are mild and unnoticeable; then they progress into notice, sometimes most sharply; finally we have severe and chronic constipation, indigestion, flatulency, diarrhea, etc., and, keeping pace with these, we have the stages of self-poisoning, which is known as auto-infection or auto-intoxication.

With other measures, the most effective for relieving and removing these symptoms of proctitis and colitis is the enema night and morning. During the long period of relaxation at night, the functions of elimination and repair are, with the great majority of us, going on under abnormal conditions--such, for instance, as excessive fermentation and bacterial putrefaction, which generate poisonous gases that are absorbed by the nerves and bring about the condition of _malaise_ we complain of when we rise in the morning. We then find our bowels distended and ready for relief--and also, strangely, “not ready”!

Before dressing, therefore, is the time to relieve the excessive pressure from gases and feces, and a slight enema is accordingly advisable, say from half a pint to a pint of water, which should be expelled at once. This removal of the contents of the rectum and perhaps of the sigmoid flexure will permit the contents of the ascending and transverse colon to pass more readily toward and into the sigmoid flexure, as though they had been invited to come; and, indeed, such passage is rendered inevitable by the removal of the local gas and feces in their path. When half an hour or more has passed and breakfast is over, it is time for the regular and complete evacuation of the bowels, by the aid of the internal bath, or, as some describe it, by a full flushing of the colon.

In our early efforts to establish harmony and periodicity with the enema, it is advisable to resort to a mild vegetal laxative, in some cases, rather than to let the tongue indicate so much foulness and allow the feelings to become so intensely blue that they cannot be hidden by even the utmost effort at pleasantry. Extreme cases may call for different aids toward relief, until, one by one, these aids may be dropped--the last one to be discontinued being the enema.

For a short time at the start it is, perhaps, best to confine one’s self to two enemas, especially if fairly successful with the attempt at a thorough cleansing after breakfast and before retiring at night. The sleep will be sounder and the patient will be more apt to rise refreshed with a clean tongue and cheerful spirits. So much will this before-bed enema do for him that he may soon find it unnecessary to take the preliminary injection on rising, inasmuch as fermentation and gas will no longer trouble him. But individual experience and intelligence must dictate the course in this respect. Let the patient study himself and note the demands of his system. It may even be, indeed it is frequently the case, that a patient requires several enemas during the day. When abnormality has set in, it gives rise to all sorts of freak requirements, and the victim must, for a time, accede to its whims.

Quite frequently, owing to various causes, the feces will descend into the rectum, which is properly a conduit, not a receptacle. While there it occasions much nervous irritation of the whole system and makes its victim desperate. It is wise, under such a condition, to take slight injections for relief. Never allow any foulness to accumulate. Establish the _habit_ of internal cleanliness. The new sense of bodily purity will be so great that it can never be outgrown.

Nature easily accommodates herself to habits, whatever they be--normal or abnormal, wholesome or unwholesome, cleanly or uncleanly; and the train of consequences will be accordingly good or evil. My point may be easily illustrated by the habits of “civilized” man in regard to bathing. Many persons never take an external bath, and are not conscious of any bodily discomfort arising from the omission of this presumably necessary practice. As the summer approaches, another batch of “civilizees,” so fortunate as to be within convenient distance of a pond, lake, river, or ocean, begin to feel the real need of a “dip,” and are uncomfortable until they get it. This is surely a sign that the spirit of cleanliness is beginning to stir in the breast of humanity. Then there is another contingent that bathe once a week, and should their regular routine in this respect be interfered with they would at once feel unclean--nay, even dirty, and, sometimes, “nasty.” Others, again, bathe twice or thrice weekly, and this quota of the human race feels very uncomfortable and foul when hindered for a week from following this routine; indeed, such bathers often imagine that a dire illness is impending. Finally, the “salt of the earth” take an external bath once or twice a day, and, should _their_ routine be suspended for twenty-four hours, visions of madness or suicide begin to haunt them until relieved by soap and hot water, or the cold plunge, as their habits require.

Of course, the same rule applies to the routine concerning the teeth, facial ablutions, etc. Nature is stored habit, and she feels outraged when her proprieties are disregarded. Let us pray, therefore, that the habit of cleanliness may become contagious!

Now, the parallel between external and internal cleanliness is quite obvious. Those whose bowels move but once in two or three days do not realize how foul they are. Others have a scant evacuation once in twenty-four hours, and they imagine that they are as clean as those that take an external bath once a week think themselves to be. Still others have two stools daily, and they feel as clean internally as those that take three external baths weekly. And, finally, there are a few who, defecating thrice daily, feel quite as clean as does the most persistent external bather. Thus we see that cleanliness, external and internal, is a habit, a new nature, attended with exquisite comfort and pleasure--a quality that may lead to the goal of divine purity in realizing the joys of hydropathy.

The wild woodland flower grew and blossomed without attention, attracting but little interest. After, however, the florist has cultivated it to the high stage of development in which we find it to-day, with its stalk, stem, leaf, and fragrant petals displaying their marvelous symmetry and beauty, we begin to appreciate the value of labor, pains, cultivation. In like manner, it is our imperative duty to give proper care to every requisite detail in the transformation of our body into a human flower of health, grace, joy, and harmony.

The great majority of those that do me the honor to read what I have to say on internal and external cleanliness will, doubtless, not agree with me as to the frequency of the ablutions in twenty-four hours. Yet I have a suspicion that if my objectors were to try an external and an internal bath, on both rising and retiring, they would soon consider the practice too delightful to be foregone; they would soon develop more sweetness of character and be more particular as to the purity of their nether garments, and, finally, would seem ensphered by an atmosphere peopled with angels.

My proposition is this: First make a man clean, internally and externally, and thus you may make him good; after you have made him good you can make him healthy in both body and mind; after you have made him healthy you can make him full of joy.

To recapitulate: A good time to take your internal bath is about half an hour after each meal. Cultivate regularity in this, and Nature will second your efforts and establish a periodicity for you by her suggestive impulse and call. Our internal economy should not be slighted as it has been. The intestines are good, faithful, patient servitors, ready to perform their lowly office even when we are inattentive and heedless. Sometimes, however, they become rebellious, after they have stood more abuse than one would think them capable of standing. Let us reform our bad habits; our servitors are willing to enter with us into better habits, and co-operate with us in a truly human life. Can you not spare a few minutes, three times a day, at _regular periods_, for inner purification? You will find it very easy when once you make it a matter of routine.

Now note this point: The work of your brain depends on the power sent to it by the gastro-intestinal canal. A motor car goes no faster than the power furnished enables it to go. So your brain activity is ever on a par with the energy supplied from this usually despised intestinal source; that is, it can never rise higher than the supply of this energy warrants, and it always falls to the level of this supply, for it depends on it absolutely for sustaining power. It would seem, therefore, that common sense would be sufficient to shame us into keeping clean, scrupulously clean, the canal that supplies us with working force--the canal that extends without a break from mouth to anus. Yet my experience shows that almost everybody cares more for his outsides than for his insides--more for squandering his stored energy than for looking out for its constant renewal--and that most patients are foul all the way down.

Well-fed animals that have the range of Nature are plump, and have healthy hair, skin, teeth, etc., because their intestinal organs perform their functions frequently and fully. When animals become domesticated and “civilized,” they become constipated and catch various human illnesses or grow a crop of their own. Well-fed “humanals” grow thin and puny, or bloated with gas, looking like corpulent clay men, without natural teeth, without natural hair, their skin dry and of a sickly hue, bloodless, fading away because of an early blight before they have completed their early growth. Heredity is blamed for the bloodless, nerveless, brainless body, when, as a matter of fact, its degeneration is due to foulness within.

Birds, beasts, and savages (more fortunate than civilized man) have the wide earth on which to stool when Nature calls. Their handy water-closet enables them to enjoy good health. As civilization advances, and business and social customs become more complex, water-closets get fewer and less accessible. As a consequence, man has to use his large intestine for a storehouse. He has done this so long that it seems impossible to break him of the foul habit. But he is paying the penalty. Many have abused the bladder in the same way, and had this been a large organ like its brother, the colon, we would long ago have heard the stereotyped excuse in regard to this function, “Oh, any time to urinate that I can find will do.” Those who object to the new order of bowel relief should, on the same principle, object to frequent bladder relief.

I submit this proposition to the judgment of unprejudiced minds: Is it not reasonable that so harmless and efficient a remedy as the internal bath should be adopted by all intelligent persons? Inasmuch as neglect--due to social, business, and other customs, and to lack of conveniences for ready relief--has brought upon us so much fecal poisoning and local disorders and so many abnormal and pernicious systemic results, it should not be considered too great a task to take an internal bath three times a day to amend our outrage on Nature--an outrage that involves our health and general well-being, here and hereafter. We owe it, not only to our possibilities, but also to posterity, that fecal poisoning be banished. We have no right to communicate such a taint to our children. They have a right to be free from such poison. Do we ever think of their claims in this regard? Let us leave them a better legacy, by adopting the thrice-a-day use of the enema for the purification of the alimentary canal!