But, after all, the best opening medicines are—cold ablutions every morning of the whole body; attention to diet; variety of food; bran-bread; grapes; stewed prunes; [For the best way of stewing prunes, see question 244.] French plums; Muscatel raisins; figs; fruit, both cooked and raw—if it be ripe and sound; oatmeal porridge; lentil powder, in the form of Du Barry’s Arabica Revalenta; vegetables of all kinds, especially spinach; exercise in the open air; early rising; daily visiting the water-closet at a certain hour—there is nothing keeps the bowels open so regularly and well as establishing the habit of visiting the water-closet at a certain hour every morning; and the other rules of health specified in these Conversations. If more attention were paid to these points, poor school-boys and school-girls would not be compelled to swallow such nauseous and disgusting messes as they usually are. Should these plans not succeed (although in the majority of cases, with patience and perseverance, they will), I would advise an enema once or twice a week, either simply of warm water, or of one made of gruel, table salt, and olive oil, in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls of salt, two of oil, and a pint of warm gruel, which a boy may administer to himself, or a girl to herself, by means of a proper enema apparatus. Hydropathy is oftentimes very serviceable in preventing and in curing costiveness; and as it will sometimes prevent the necessity of administering medicine, it is both a boon and a blessing. “Hydropathy also supplies us with various remedies for constipation. From the simple glass of cold water, taken early in the morning, to the various douches and sea-baths, a long list of useful appliances might be made out, among which we may mention the ‘wet compresses’ worn for three hours over the abdomen [bowels], with a gutta-percha covering.” I have here a word or two to say to a mother who is always physicking her family. It is an unnatural thing to be constantly dosing either a child or any one else with medicine. One would suppose that some people were only sent into the world to be physicked! If more care were paid to the rules of health, very little medicine would be required! This is a bold assertion; but I am confident that it is a true one. It is a strange admission for a medical man to make, but, nevertheless, my convictions compel me to avow it. 370. _What is the reason girls are so subject to Costiveness?_ The principal reason why girls suffer more from costiveness than boys, is that their habits are more sedentary; as the best opening medicines in the world are an abundance of exercise, of muscular exertion, and of fresh air.