They consist, principally,
in an observance of great regularity with respect to the time of taking
food, its quality, quantity, and due mastication; regular and
sufficient exercise, horse exercise being particularly serviceable; the
shower-bath, or daily ablution; early rising (the indulgence in the
habit of lying in bed always predisposing to constipation); and,
lastly, the patient habituating himself to evacuate the bowels at a
certain hour of the day. After breakfast appears to be the time when
the bowels are more disposed to act than at any other part of the day;
this is the time, then, that should be chosen.
All these points must be sedulously observed, and upon the principles
laid down in the various chapters upon these subjects, if habitual
costiveness is expected to be overcome.
SECT. IV.--WORMS.
NOT SO FREQUENT AS POPULARLY SUPPOSED; AN ERROR PRODUCTIVE OF
MISCHIEF.--Almost all diseases have been, at one time or other,
attributed to the generation of worms in the intestines. And at the
present day it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for medical men to
be called in to prescribe for children, to whom the strongest purgative
quack medicines have been previously exhibited by parents, for the
removal of symptoms which, upon investigation, are found in no way
connected with or produced by worms.
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