Proctitis

“ The keynote of this book is Proctitis, inflammation of the anal and rectal canals. Hardly a civilized man escapes proctitis from the day of the diaper to that of death. The diaper is in truth chiefly responsible for proctitis, and proctitis is in turn chiefly responsible for chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea, auto-infection; and hence for mal-assimilation, mal-nutrition, anemia; and for a thousand and one reflex functional derangements of the system as well. The inflamed surface of the intestinal canal (proctitis) inhibits the passage of feces. ”

“ In the majority of cases its use should be limited to aiding the feces to escape from their normal receptacle—the sigmoid flexure—whenever proctitis does not extend beyond the rectum. But many persons are deceived by the conduct of proctitis and are thus likely to omit the regular irrigation twice a day. They believe themselves to be in pretty good condition and do not realize that their old, implacable enemy may be excited into riot any day ”

“ No doubt the readers of the preceding chapters on proctitis and its numerous symptoms—noted under separate headings—would like to know something about the home treatment for such an insidious and grave disease. Every sufferer wants to be a self-doctor. This commendable desire it is usually impossible to put into practice. If physicians so often fail to cure the ailments I have described, what can be expected of those who have no knowledge at all of diagnosis and treatment?
A skilful physician is the choicest gem of civilization, and an intelligent patient its worthy setting. ”

“ Proctitis is usually worse than it seems to be. This is because of the insidious progress of the inflammation during the fifteen, twenty or more years before the local symptoms at the anus or in the anal canal are sufficiently annoying to compel the sufferer to seek treatment. Such sufferers are, as a rule, born with the idea that the liver regulates the whole alimentary canal; and if the sufferer has not this hereditary notion, his physician will soon impart it to him with his diagnosis and treatment. ”

“ To merely relieve the annoying symptoms that accompany it cannot be called a cure. But on the other hand relief may be the commencement of a cure. Of course the true way of looking at the subject of this disease is to regard the cure of proctitis as necessarily leading to the disappearance in time of all the other troubles that were the outcome of that ailment. Through the harmonious efforts of patient and physician, marvellous results are often obtainable. ”

“ Up to the present time proctologists have paid little or no attention to proctitis and sigmoiditis, which is a grave disease, with a far more serious symptom, that of mucus fistulæ of great length and diameter, extending in all directions in the pelvic cavity and tissues of the buttocks, the large area of tissue found so full of holes, might be likened to a sponge occupying the same space. ”

“ When the subject of proctitis is better understood by laymen they will see to it that the rectums of children receive an examination before the children are six years old, and thus obviate the necessity of dosing them with all sorts of medicine that follow improper diagnosis. ”

“ Constipated people, semi-constipated people, irregular people and twenty-four-hour people, are not healthy. They are constantly being poisoned by the abnormal products of indigestion and putrefaction resulting from fecal stagnation, which products enter the blood and circulate through every tissue of the body.
All cases of proctitis are more or less accompanied by constipation and diarrhea. In all cases of chronic constipation I have found proctitis, and often colitis, and am forced to believe it is the most common and proximate cause of chronic constipation of the bowels. ”

“ But the truth of the matter is that in all cases of proctitis and constipation the diseased portion of the gut is too active in its muscular movements, contracting spasmodically, as it does, at even the suggestion or suspicion of feces near it. Every impulse of the bowels above the constricted section to force the feces down through the closed bore only intensifies the spasmodic action and increases the muscular obstruction, compelling the victim to resort to some one of the many drastic means of relief. ”

“ Piles are easily and quickly cured without any annoyance to the sufferer. Chronic proctitis may be cured, but not quickly, as time is required to undo damage to tissues so long invaded by inflammatory process. Any one that allows a continuance of "a touch of the piles," as the expression is, and omits to take proper treatment as soon as this "touch" is felt, simply invites or takes chances of some form of cancer of the lower bowel later in life. ”

“ Absorbent glands begin to act on the retained sewage, and the whole system becomes more or less infected with poisonous bacteria. Various organs (especially the feeblest) endeavor to perform vicarious defecation, and the patient, the friends, and even the physician are deceived by such vicarious performance into thinking and treating it as a local ailment. I cannot, accordingly, insist too emphatically that proctitis, the exciting cause, must be treated primarily if we would cure chronic constipation. Millions of human beings are sent to untimely graves by these ailments. ”

“ There is a legion of secondary symptoms of proctitis, all of which medical empiricism considers and denominates causes. As constipation is such an every-day complaint of almost everybody one meets, it will not tax our imagination unduly to conceive how it may be a frequent cause of diarrhea, which is only Nature's effort to get rid of its useless and excessive burden of retained feces and gases. Constipation, semi-constipation, and irregular action of the bowels, excessive fermentation, putrefaction, self-generated or auto-infection, are the factors to be considered. ”

“ A few of the many primary symptoms of proctitis and colitis are con­sti­pa­tion, diarrhea, indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, putre­fac­tion, and gaseous and bacterial poisons—a foul gastro-intestinal canal, through which there are daily absorbed from the bowels two-thirds to three-fourths of the excrementitious matter into the system. With these facts before us we need not be astonished at the statement that nine-tenths of human ills have their origin in the digestive apparatus. ”

“ All persons suffering from proctitis and colitis and their symptoms, as described in the previous chapters of this work and in Intestinal Ills, will require, now and then, if not under treatment, special irrigation of the stomach to remove fermentative matter, particles of undigested food, and tenacious, ropy mucus before the next meal is taken. Otherwise the condition will be made doubly bad, for the fresh material is piled on top of the unduly retained contents of the stomach. As evidence of our civilization, we clean pots and kettles before the next meal. ”

“ Proctitis may exist with follicular ulcers; ulcers form in the cæcum, sigmoid flexure, and in the bends of the colon; perforations and peritonitis rarely occur. Chronic peritonitis has resulted from the stretching of the bowel from retained and hardened feces; adhesions may form which ultimately cause death by obstructing the canal. The walls of the intestines are in long-standing cases much thinned. There are many reasons to believe that fatty degeneration of the smooth muscular fibre takes place, in consequence of which it loses its contractile power and atrophies. ”

“ The tenth objection to using an enema is in being obliged to use it from the fact of having such a disease as chronic inflammation of the rectum and colon. Every victim hates to be compelled to do a thing, and the victim of proctitis and colitis is no exception to the rule. In fact, he is beginning to realize that unless he uses it his system will be poisoned by the absorption of the sewage waste. Let the victim object to the disease that necessitates the use of the enema and he will shortly be well. ”

“ The author prefers to use the term costiveness for the general debased condition of the system from auto-intoxication depending upon proctitis and similar conditions of the intestinal tract. And it must be remembered that the same patient may have two or more of these conditions at the same time. Constipation, obstipation and diarrhea may alternate through the progress of the case. ”

“ The victim of proctitis simply forms a habit of daily soliciting an evacuation, though the normal invitation or desire to stool may be entirely absent, and the evacuation in such cases is attended with more or less delay and straining effort to accomplish partially or wholly the expulsion of the more or less inspissated feces. ”

“ As to its being unnatural to flush the bowels with water, I would say that it is very unnatural to suffer from proctitis accompanied with its annoying symptoms, such as constipation, indigestion, diarrhea, auto-intoxication, emaciation, anemia, muddy complexion, foul breath, blotches and pimples on the face, each and all of which indicate a physical debasement.
It is unnatural to wear glasses, crutches, splints, wigs, artificial teeth, artificial eyes, but many people do such unnatural things. Many of our habits are not exactly "natural," but they are rational, none the less ”

“ We should remember that ulcerative proctitis and colitis have made the use of the enema a necessity; that, accordingly, the diseased, constricted gut or canal must be treated very gently and not irritated in any avoidable way. The least irritation will result in still greater muscular contraction. It stands to reason that the effort to reach the healthy portion of the bowel with a slightly flexible colon tube frustrates its own purpose, and that it is besides a source of serious and unnecessary irritation. ”

“ It requires the stuff heroes are made of to endure chronic mucous proctitis and sigmoiditis for ten, thirty, or forty years without the disease being accurately diagnosed, and to be told that all treatment is useless and that the trouble is in the head of the sufferer, that he is a hypochondriac, and a neurasthenic, terms often used by doctors who are unable to make a proper diagnosis of a case. ”

“ A fourth objection is that after taking the first enema the constipation is worse.
With many persons a certain amount of undue accumulation of feces will excite a sufficient muscular effort of the gut to force the dried mass through the proctitis- and colitis-strictured bowels. This unnatural effort may occur once a day or once in two or three days, and has doubtless been a habit of many years' duration. ”

“ No remedy that sufferers apply themselves can be more than a temporary relief: it cannot really cure piles, polypus, fistula, tabs, pruritus (itching) —all of them consequences of proctitis. Of course one should be thankful for the little relief to be got temporarily from advertised and drug-store drugs; nothing more than relief can be expected of them. There are indeed times when a palliative treatment will serve to tide the sufferer over a few days until he is able to consult a competent physician. ”

“ When the proper means are found to remove the intestinal inflammation—proctitis and colitis—then the constipation will disappear, and with its disappearance the enema habit can be discontinued. But let it be well noted that the enema is itself an aid in curing the cause, an aid superior to any other at our command. A cleanly habit ought not to be an objectionable one, especially in cases in which it is most needed to prevent toxic substances from entering the system. ”

“ The aggravated character of the inflammation accounts for the hypertrophied and the cicatricial tissue so often found around the anal vent of proctitis cases. The Biblical suggestion that sacculated mucosa, commonly termed piles or hemorrhoids, is a disease, accounts for the numerous names used to designate the particular variety of the disease—whether it be an internal or an external pile tumor. It is very wrong to so mislead “scientific” medical men. ”

“ Does it not stand to reason that the greater portion of the liquid in which the feces were dissolved and had fermented is re-absorbed into the system? Why should the poor victim of proctitis and cathartics wonder why he has gout, rheumatism, and disease of the kidneys, bladder, lungs, liver, stomach, nerves ”

“ A continuous stream of carbonic acid or of hydrogen directed against muscular tissue will cause paralysis of the part.
Physicians admit that in certain portions of the alimentary canal extensive dilatation may occur, independent of any permanent obstruction, in the lumen, or bore, of the gut. As a rule, however, victims of proctitis and colitis suffer from more or less occlusion of the lumen in the region invaded by the ulcerative inflammatory process. ”

“ Should channels, of varying length and numbers, form early in the development of proctitis, the sufferer is usually found to be free from piles, or hemorrhoids, for the reason that the channels have afforded an outlet to the inflammatory product. ”

“ A physician who prescribes for a case of chronic constipation or diarrhea without first examining the sufferer for proctitis and colitis, is either ignorant or does wilful harm to his patient and injury to his practice. ”

“ The insidious manner in which proctitis, colitis, con­sti­pa­tion, and self-poisoning progress from mild through medium to severe stages does not, generally, alarm the victim of intestinal neurasthenia until many years have elapsed, and one or more of the vital organs have become diseased, and the whole system is thoroughly under its toxic effects. ”