end or pouch is down; this dependent position makes it peculiarly
liable to impaction and the injuries which are disposed to come from
distention; for, as the colon ascends from its connection with the
cecum, the force of gravity must be reckoned with.

The colon is very liable to be more or less distended with
accumulations, and especially is this true of those of sedentary
habits, for a call to evacuate the bowels is frequently postponed.

This postponing of duty to nature has evolved, in all these years of
civilized life, a weakened functioning so that man is more subject
to constipation than any other animal. The bowels are educated to
tolerate a great accumulation and the pretty general habit of taking
drugs to force action has grown a weakened state which is the
natural sequence of overstimulation and as this has been going on
generation after generation it has become more or less
transmissible.

The cecum, situated as it is, must bear the brunt of the evil
effects of constipation. When the large intestine is full or
distended, as it usually is in cases of chronic constipation, so
that nothing can pass out of the cecum this organ becomes a jetty
head, so to speak, against which the peristaltic waves from the
small intestine break. The full force of the peristaltic waves from
the small intestine with its onrush of fluid or semifluid contents
subjects the cecum to great distention and strain.

If there were any way to prove that so-called appendicitis is more
common to-day than in former times, it is reasonable to believe that
the irritating effect of the pretty general habit of taking