There are surgeons who recommend stretching and paralyzing the external sphincter muscle; and if they are correct in their diagnosis and treatment, those who prescribe _bile-bouncers_, and those who prescribe "_nutrient suppositories_," and those who prescribe the use of _rubber bougies_ and _candles_, should call a convention (to meet in, say, New York City) to discuss the subject and see if they cannot agree to inform the people that constipation is a sign of, or a factor in, the evolution of the human race. Those who believe in the gymnastics of man's ears and of his sphincter ani and the therapeutic merits of this and of that could readily assent to the same glorious conclusion. Strange to say, there are in New York physicians who are in the habit of inserting a rubber bougie up their patients' rectums two or three times a week for the cure of constipation. Some, more bold, intrust the bougie performance to the patient in order that a daily dilatation and stimulation may be kept up until "recovery from the disease is effected." Others, more original, order the patient to insert a candle some six inches in length up the rectum and allow it to remain ten minutes, with the hope of a "rapid cure." A Mrs. P----, who had used the candle treatment for a great length of time by order of her distinguished physician, once consulted me. On examination, I found her afflicted with atrophic catarrh, chronic constipation and anal ulceration, from which she had suffered for seven years, with but little intermission from pain during each day of that entire period. CHAPTER X. BILIOUSNESS AND BILIOUS ATTACKS. Commonly the source of chronic gastro-intestinal uncleanliness, of dyspepsia, of autogenetic poisons and auto-infection is inflammatory occlusion--more or less permanent or spasmodic--of some part of the lower bowel. Many years of auto-infection will exhibit such diseased symptoms as poor appetite, bad digestion, impoverished blood, emaciation, etc., accompanied by increased virulence of the catarrhal discharge of mucus, shreds, etc., and a mind and body sinking down to the morbid plane of hysteria, hypochondriasis (fear of illness) and neurasthenia (debility of the nervous system).