are, few people with intestinal putrefactive diseases, from cholera
infantum in babyhood to proctitis in old age, would get well, for
most of the treatment for one and all of these diseases is
obstructive rather than conservative and helpful.]

"This strong man, aged 31, had previously regarded himself as
perfectly well. Nothing indicated the danger in which he found
himself and which had existed since the appearance of the fecal
calculus. the time when this had formed being impossible to
determine. The disease appeared acutely with fulminant symptoms."

[He was, indeed, unfortunate, but his greatest misfortune, as I see
it, was his treatment. Every acute disease is fulminant, even
indigestion is fulminant, but the force of the warring elements is
soon expended and unless reinforced by fresh elements the
fulmination must end.

In diseases such as typhoid fever, appendicitis and typhlitis, we
have first of all a constitutional derangement brought on by errors
of life. The general resistance is lowered from nerve-exhausting
habits; the general tone of digestion is below par and the bowel
contents are maintaining a higher toxic state than usual; we have
added to this condition an unusual tax in a long run of hot weather,
business worries or unusual mental, physical or digestive strain,
following which acute intestinal indigestion manifests with a sudden
explosion; or there takes place a transformation of the contents of
the bowels into an intense putrefaction which infects a portion of
the mucosa that has been rendered susceptible by pressure from fecal
impaction, concretions, or any cause capable of devitalizing. If the
infection takes place in Peyer's patches, typhoid fever is the