Those who have had occasion to acquire the warm-band, the rubbing with liniment, and the plaster habits, had better direct their attention and remedies to the _cause_ of the symptoms. One frequent source of all these back symptoms is chronic inflammation of the anus, rectum, and colon, with more or less ulceration accompanying it. In the female, disease of the uterus complicates the painful symptoms. Usually among the first indications of this disease is some degree of constipation, which in time is followed by local symptoms known as piles, fissure, itching tabs, clot of blood in a vein, abscess, etc. Constipation is a prolific cause of indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, loss of appetite, self-poisoning, anemia, emaciation, uric acid, neuralgia in various parts of the system, catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane of one or more organs, and many other symptoms. A diseased organ is a constant source of unconscious and conscious irritation to the sufferer. If the victim can tolerate the trouble he seldom seeks treatment. “I will not bother with it as long as it is no worse,” he says. At times, however, the symptoms become very annoying, and measures are taken to allay them. During the long interval of “better and worse” effects the malady is becoming more deeply seated, and the symptoms eventually appear in all parts of the body. As a rule, the majority of victims put off treatment until a protracted period of extreme suffering or the fear of a fatal ending compels them to consult a physician--who labors at a great disadvantage in seeking to effect a cure on account of the long neglect. Severe symptoms located at the porous-plaster region of the spine, when brought on by disease of the lower bowel, usually indicate an acute stage of chronic inflammation and retention of feces and gases in the sigmoid flexure and colon. Acute or subacute inflammation and fever and pressure of the feces are more than the long-abused nerves can endure, and severe pain is the result. Then the sufferer has something to say about his back, and what is best to do for it. The logical course is to unload the bowels of feces and gases by a generous use of the enema and to treat the diseased tissues kindly. The symptoms will soon disappear when the cause is removed. CHAPTER XV. URIC ACID. A society leader, in speaking of her ills to a woman friend, said: “I am ‘lousy’ with uric acid.” From infancy to old age, mankind is more or less filled with uric acid and other poisons--the result of a foul intestinal canal. Poisoned blood is a common symptom, and it arises from an almost universal cause--chronic constipation. So universal is constipation of the bowels in illness that it is the first duty of a physician to prescribe some remedy to unload them.