Where, either from constitutional weakness, sedentary occupation, or other unavoidable causes, the bowels are unable to act sufficiently to relieve the system without assistance, we have, of course, no choice but to select that which is most suitable to the circumstances and most gentle in its operation; because, if assistance be not afforded, the health will assuredly suffer. Numerous examples of this kind are met with every day; and, when treating them, we should always be careful to aid Nature as far as possible by an appropriate diet and regimen, and not trust to medicine alone for rectifying the consequences of the patient’s misconduct. We ought, in short, never to lose sight of the great truth, that, if the bowels were originally constituted by the Creator with power to act sufficiently on the application of their own stimulus, food, there must necessarily be a wide departure from His laws in some part of our conduct to cause the loss of that power; and therefore, whenever we find the bowels unable to act without medicine, our first business ought to be to discover and rectify the error into which we have fallen,--and recourse should be had to medicine only in so far as it shall be necessary to remedy the consequences which the transgression has brought upon us. As the sole object of the present volume is to make the reader acquainted with the _natural_ laws of the animal economy, and with the means by which aberrations from them may be prevented and health preserved, I shall not enter at all upon the discussion either of the morbid conditions of the bowels, or of the remedies by which these may be cured--and consequently shall say nothing farther of the use of purgative or other medicines. The consideration of these matters is not only foreign to the subject, but would require an extent of detail much beyond my present limits. Perhaps some persons may think, that, before concluding, I ought to apologize for having introduced to the notice of the general reader such topics as those discussed in this and some of the former chapters. In doing so, I have been actuated by a deep sense of the misery arising from the prevailing ignorance on topics which, although in themselves as interesting and important as any to which the human mind can be directed, have nevertheless been passed over in silence, partly from not the least suspicion being generally entertained of their real bearing on our health and happiness, and partly also from false notions of delicacy diverting attention from their calm and deliberate examination. In endeavouring, therefore, to unfold what I conceive to be useful truths, in the language of reason, I confess that I feel no apprehension that any well-constituted mind will receive contamination from the perusal of what is contained in these pages. INDEX. Abercrombie, Dr, quoted on intemperate eating, 225, 282. Absorbents of the bowels, 163.