"The feces sometimes accumulate in distinct indurated scybala or in enormous masses, solid and compact. Taunton, a surgeon of London, has a preparation of the colon and rectum of more than twenty inches in circumference containing three gallons of feces, taken from a woman, whose abdomen was as much distended as in the maturity of pregnancy. By Lemazurier, another case is reported of a pregnant woman, who was constipated for two months, from whom, after death, thirteen and one-half pounds of solid feces were taken away, though a short time before between two and three pounds had been scraped out of the rectum. Cases are reported by Dr. Graves of Dublin, which he saw in women, where from the great distentions in certain directions of the abdomen, the one was considered to be owing to a prodigious hypertrophy of the liver, and the other of the ovary; in the latter of which he removed a bucket-full of feces in two days. Mr. Wilmot of London has recently given a case where a gallon of matter was lodged in the cæcum, and the intestines perforated by ulceration." Dr. Pavy, in his treatise on _The Functions of Digestion_ (p. 232), writes: "The morbid conditions that constipation may occasion are of various kinds. Under an undue retention of fecal matters within the colon noxious products may be formed there, and act as irritants upon the mucous coat, setting up inflammation, followed by ulceration. It is to be here remarked that fecal matters are sometimes retained in the sacculi or pouches of the colon, and may give rise to the circumstances referred to, whilst a passage exists along the centre of the canal that shall permit a daily evacuation to occur. The dejections, even, may be loose in character, and still the same sequence of events ensue. From the irritating influence of preternaturally retained feces, colicky pains are, as a rule, induced, and the ultimate effects may be such as to lead to the production of fatal inflammation.