Much has been written about the distention of the rectum, sigmoid flexure, and colon from the undue accumulation of feces. The fecal distention of the gut may extend along the intestine for from three to nine inches or more, which is a very grave matter indeed. But why is so much attention given to a few inches of impacted feces dilating a portion of the bowel, and none whatever to the prevention or elimination of gaseous matter that distends the whole gastro-intestinal canal to such an extent that the body is tightly inflated and the median parts of the belly bulge out like a balloon? Cattle raisers are conversant with the gaseous inflation of their animals, and have to resort to the knife to puncture the stomach to permit the gas to escape; otherwise fatal results would soon follow. Some animals, even, like most human beings, are intemperate in eating. When they consume too much grass they suffer from flatulency and colic, and require drastic treatment. Rather than let some worthy men and women die, ought we not at times to adopt the ranchman’s treatment for flatus? This harsh means, however, might be avoided by inventive science. Overfed, constipated, inflated man, victim of habitual flatulency, could easily have small gas valves inserted here and there along his gastro-intestinal canal--one, say, to relieve the stomach of toxic gas, another for the appendix region, and still another in the hernial region of the abdomen. Suppose overfeeders were to adopt the gas-valve fad, and discontinue the habit of using cathartics, soda, charcoal, peppermint, pepsin, whiskey, etc., as means of relief! How in the world can a _drug_ aid digestion when taken into a foul, gaseous, and feces-clogged canal? A chemist cannot get the definite results he seeks unless he have the right chemicals and proper vessels. Just so with the spiritual Ego and his systemic chemistry of food: he needs a clean and healthy digestive apparatus for proper assimilation and elimination. But he gets careless, allows it to get foul, and then insincerely expresses astonishment that the chemical combinations are not such as one could wish or expect. Other chemists, called doctors or druggists, come along and dose the poor victim of his own carelessness until they have ruined his apparatus completely. They have got to live, of course; and it is their business to see that he does not escape so long as they can help it.