"The effect of constipation upon the muscular coat of the bowel is, through distention to which it is subjected, to weaken or deteriorate its evacuating power. As the result of a great amount of distention, like as happens in the case of the urinary bladder, more or less complete paralysis is induced. From the prolonged retention of fecal matter accompanying constipation, excrementitious products that ought to be eliminated become absorbed and thereby contaminate the contents of the circulatory system. As the result of this contamination, the secretions become vitiated, and a general disturbance of the conditions of life is produced. The action of the liver becoming deranged, its eliminative office is imperfectly discharged, and thus sallowness of the face and a bilious-tinged conjunctiva are produced. A coated tongue, foul mouth, loss of appetite, and other dyspeptic manifestations, accompany the general disorder of the digestive organs that prevails. The accumulation existing in the colon leads to a sense of distention and uneasiness in the abdomen. The kidneys vicariously discharge products that ought to have been eliminated by the alimentary canal. In this manner the urine becomes preternaturally loaded. From the contaminated state of the blood the functions of animal life also become disturbed; and hence the lassitude, debility, headache, giddiness and dejected spirits, that form such frequent accompaniments of constipation.... A distended cæcum, colon, and rectum may also, by the pressure exerted upon the nerves and vessels of the lower extremities, be the cause of numbness, cramps, pains and edema of the legs. The edema occasioned by constipation, if not exclusively confined to one side, will in all probability be decidedly greater in one leg than in the other." Case (from _Gaz. Méd. de Paris_, July 20, 1839): A woman of fifty was troubled with habitual diarrhea and frequent calls to urinate, in which urine could be discharged only by drops. After six years of suffering and unsuccessful use of remedies, she was examined for the first time per anum, and an accumulation of fecal matter discovered, forming a mass the size of an infant's head. This was removed and found to weigh four pounds. She then got well. CHAPTER VI. HOW AUTO-INFECTION AFFECTS THE GASTRIC DIGESTION, AND VICE VERSA. Frederick the Great said that all culture comes through the stomach. This saying emphasizes pithily the dependence of psychology upon physiology. The stomach with the intestines is certainly the source from which every portion of the body receives its nourishment and most of its diseases. The physiological _plus_ and _minus_ processes leave their reflex on the mind.