THE ENEMA
not impossible, and constipation, with danger of septic poisoning, is aggravated. If the taking of purgatives were confined solely to adult life, the tale to be told would be utterly different in character, since functional derangement would be the principal harm effected. But cathartics are prescribed in infancy, and their indiscriminate use at this period of life is one of the great causes of intestinal mechanical defect, such as is described in detail in the chapter dealing with death in the fast. By their employment in childhood nutrition is lowered through resulting digestive disturbance; inflammation thus engendered is soothed with opiates; feeding and fermentation continue; development of the intestinal tract is arrested, or the tract in portions is functionally paralyzed—an organic condition that cannot be corrected, even by nature itself, in a lifetime of later natural existence. How different the outcome were the enema administered in infancy when functional digestive disturbance and constipation occur! The results are immediate and are attained with no tax upon digestion. The delicate nervous fabric of the child suffers no disastrous reaction when bowel accumulation is thus naturally removed, and
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