foods contain little residue; every meal should contain some indigestible
matter to stimulate the intestines. Brown bread, porridge, lettuce, cress,
apples and coarse vegetables are all good for this purpose, but if taken
too freely may cause heartburn and flatulence. Meat, milk, fish, eggs and
most patent foods have not enough waste. Boiled milk is very constipating.

Purgatives, injections and medicines, alone, are useless, for the bowel
becomes still more insensitive to natural calls under the artificial
stimulation of drugs, on which it becomes so entirely dependent that
without their aid it will not act.

It may be necessary to clean out the bowel by an enema.

Make a lather with clean warm water and plain soap, and fill the enema
syringe (a half-pint size is useful). Smear the nozzle with vaseline, lean
forward and insert into the anus, pointing a little to the left. Press the
bulb, withdraw the nozzle, retain the liquid a few moments and a desire to
go to stool will be felt.

A simpler plan is to buy glycerin suppositories. One is inserted into the
anus and acts like an injection. It must be clearly understood that these
are emergency measures.

If internal piles come down at stool, do not allow them to remain and get
engorged with blood. See that your hands are scrupulously clean, and your
nails closely cut and free from dirt; then moisten the middle finger with a
little vaseline taken to the lavatory for the purpose, and gently return
the hæmorrhoids, sitting down for a few minutes to retain them.

A mild purge may be taken once a week with advantage. Glauber's Salts