from dealing satisfactorily with the mass so hastily thrust into it.

There is an old saying that "Those whom the gods will destroy they
first make mad," and in many instances young people who fall victims
to the demon of dyspepsia owe their sorrows, if not to madness, at any
rate to ignorance and want of consideration. The defective teeth,
septic tonsils, discharging adenoids, poverty of their parents and
their own laziness, all conspire to cause digestive troubles which
bear a fruitful crop of further evils, for thus are caused such
illnesses as anæmia and gastric ulcer.

Constipation claims a few words to itself. And here again we ought
to consider certain septic processes. The refuse of the food should
travel along the bowels at a certain rate, but if owing to
sluggishness of their movements or to defects in the quality and
amount of their secretion, the refuse is too long retained the masses
become unduly dry, and, constantly shrinking in volume, are no longer
capable of being urged along the tube at the proper rate. In
consequence of this the natural micro-organisms of the intestine cease
to be innocent and become troublesome; they lead in the long run to a
peculiar form of blood-poisoning, and to so many diseased conditions
that it is impossible to deal with them at the present moment. The
existence of constipation is too often a signal for the administration
of many doses of medicine. The wiser, the less harmful, and the more
effectual method of dealing with it would be to endeavour to secure
the natural action of the bowels by a change in the diet, which should
contain more vegetable and less animal constituents. The patient
should also be instructed to drink plenty of water, either hot or
cold, a large glassful on going to bed and one on first awaking, and
also if necessary an hour before each meal. Steady exercise is also of