degree F. The pulse rate being 130 does not indicate fever nor
exhaustion, and is not in keeping with the temperature nor physical
strength, hence the rapidity must be partly due to pressure on the
diaphragm from the gas distention and partly from the paralyzing
effect that opium has on the heart.

The professional reader will see that I have by my analysis
eliminated much of the formidableness that the physical appearance
gives to this case, but I would not have you believe that this man
was not a desperately sick man even if I have accounted for the
dangerous symptoms. The fact is, if the pronounced symptoms had been
what they appeared to be, the man would have been saved his trip to
me, for he would have been dead.

The farmer had learned from experience that the less he put in his
stomach the better he felt; hence, for a day or two before he left
his home to consult me, he had refused food and drugs and had taken
very little water.

After giving the sick man a rest in my office I had his wife take
him to the home of a friend with whom they had arranged to stay
while in the city. In a few hours I visited him and made the
following prescriptions and proscriptions: Positively no food, not
one teaspoonful of anything except water. An enema of half a gallon
of tepid water to be used once each day for the purpose of clearing
out the bowels below the constriction, and I advised against
violence--rough handling. A hot water jug to the feet, fee to the
abdomen, all the fresh air possible in his bedroom and absolute
quiet. If nauseated, enough water to control thirst was to be used
by enema; if the stomach was all right all the water desired by