first symptom, looseness, could not result from deficiency in diet, that is, if the deficiency related to quantity solely——the quality being plain and digestible. Tanner had no movement during his fast; Griscomb’s experience was similar, and Connolly, the consumptive, who fasted forty-three days, had no movement for three weeks, and then the temporary looseness was occasioned by profuse water-drinking, which in his case proved curative. In common life, it is rare indeed that constipation is the result of a deficient diet, although it often arises from lack of nourishment consequent upon excess, or an unwholesome variety of food, or both. Usually it may be regarded as the “reaction” from over-action. The not uncommon experience, in regular order, is this: Excess in diet, diarrhœa, constipation, physic or enema, purgation, worse constipation, more physic, and so on. The term reaction here means simply that the organs involved having been irritated by undigested food, and having by means of increased action cleared away the obstructions, now seek restoration by the most natural method, as the name itself implies——rest. What are commonly called diseases are in reality cures; and the common practice, with drug doctors, of “CONTROLLING THE SYMPTOMS,” is like answering the cries and gesticulations of a drowning man with a knock on the head. If when these intestinal disorders arise, or have become serious, their chief cause——over-feeding——be kept up, the next of nature’s remedies may be inflammation of stomach or bowels, or both, followed, perhaps, by _dysentery_, which is the most serious phase of constipation. These are very alarming symptoms, and demand entire abstinence from food until they are considerably abated; pure water should be given freely, and, when possible, exercise to some degree in the open air; tepid water injections, followed by gentle kneading of the bowels for a few minutes, occasionally, to promote the circulation in that region, thus favoring the cleansing and healing process. The appearance of a little fresh blood, even, following this treatment, should not excite alarm; on the contrary, it is, _per se_, a favorable symptom. This special phase of the subject is treated more at length in the author’s work entitled “How to Feed the Baby.”