Well knowing that sexual indulgence constitutes one of the most fruitful causes of this disease——of decline, in short, however exhibited——I will conclude by saying, that the consumptive should _never_ depart from the rule of strict continence. (See Appetite.) No language can exaggerate the importance of this injunction for a person who is even threatened with decline, if he means to eradicate his disease. The sexual and the nervous systems (including the brain) act and react upon one another, keeping both abnormally alert, and these upon the digestive and assimilative, through the sympathetic, altogether making a quadrangular fight well calculated to impair——to break down, indeed——the strongest constitution; while with the less vigorous (often the most lascivious; or, maybe, the victim of a libidinous but otherwise considerate companion) the case is hopeless, unless the true remedy is applied. The patient should sleep alone, if possible, not even the husband or wife sharing the bed——a rule which, from every point of view, is of importance to both the patient and the attendant. * * * * * NOTE.——The underlying principle of this work prohibits the idea of a specific and exclusive treatment for this, that, and the other _disease_ mentioned; for these are named simply in order that we may make a beginning toward understanding the term _sickness_: the entire volume, from preface to finis, is a treatise on the origin of sickness, its prevention and cure. In view of this, we can not leave the consumptive here, while the dyspeptic, the rheumatic, or the _douloureux_-tic is invited to a consideration of his peculiar symptoms,——for these, in large measure, are mere accidents, since the rheumatic of to-day may be the paralytic of to-morrow, and the dyspeptic of this year the consumptive next, and so on. But all classes, and all who wish to inform themselves as to what makes pain and sickness, and what ends these symptoms, should study carefully the various chapters, omitting none. CHAPTER IV. CONSTIPATION.