In the fourth instance there will be over-activity on the part of the intake organs and deficient function on the part of the organs of elimination. Sluggish intestinal activity will certainly be present. The bowels may move daily, but examination will show by the putridity and by other signs that the fecal mass has been too long retained. Habitual constipation is the general rule in these cases, especially if there is a general neurotic habit. Again there will be alternate constipation and diarrhoea.
In the fifth and sixth instances the conditions will be determined in a large measure by other factors. These will be largely contributions to other conditions.
The significance of the width of the gastric angle is too well known to require special mention. The wide angle is invariably found in those with a voluminous abdomen and the narrow angle in those with the long and tubular abdomen. It is a point that should never be overlooked in the examination; yet it should never be made the sole point on which a conclusion is based. It is only one thing that indicates the character of the organic development. For instance, though it gives us some idea of the width of the cavity, it tells us nothing of the depth, to say nothing about its telling us nothing of the character of development of the intestines.
Now regarding the development of the alimentary tract we learn from the anatomists that the average total length from mouth to anus is from ten to eleven meters, or six or seven times greater than the stature, and that the small intestines are about eight meters long and the large from 1.30 to 1.70, possibly two meters. These figures merely give the average. Goldwaithe, I think, tells us that the intestinal tract has been found on autopsy as short as ten and as long as forty feet. That with such an astonishing difference in development there must be a marked difference in degree of functional activity goes without saying.
No one can possibly doubt this. To imagine an equal degree of activity is to imagine that something that doesnt exist can function, or else to say that thirty feet of intestine is of no use, is just so much redundant tissue and absolutely useless. Of course, everyone will admit that where there is so great a difference in degree of development there will also be great difference in degree of functional activity; but some may deny any importance where the difference is only a few feet.
Well, in some instances a few feet may not seem to make much difference, but in others, depending on other conditions, a few feet may make a very great difference. It is just these slight variations, especially where there are a number of them, that account for those conditions which in our ignorance, and to hide our ignorance, we call idiosyncrasies.
But how do we determine the degree of development of the intestines? Recall what was said at the beginning of this discussion: “the contour of the abdomen is determined by the organs within.” If this is true then it follows that an abdomen that is shallow, short from the umbilicus to the pubes, and the pelvis is narrow, all indicating a small cavity, will contain a small intestinal tract. Large organs cannot be put in small cavities. Nature doesnt build that way.
A case is recalled of a lady of forty-five, who all her life had been subject to diarrhoea,and all her menstrual life to frequent and profuse menstruation. Both processes were more or less painful. The X-ray showed considerable enteroptosis. At various times the uterus had been prolapsed, though at time of her first visit she was not troubled with this. For a period of fifteen years and up the time of her visit she had not had a single normal stool, but on the contrary several large, soft, mushy or again watery and slimy stools every day. The menstrual flow was never less than seven days, and profuse a good part of the time.
There were, of course, a great many other symptoms. The morphological examination showed among other things a deficient development of the nervous system, likewise of the thoracic system, and a marked excess in development of the abdomen. The abdomen was 5.5 cm. excess in length and the pelvis was 3.7excess in diameter. Putting these three things together and we have what ? Low degree of nervous activity, deficient respiratory function and all that this means to all the functions, and a flabby, watery, plethoric state of every organ and tissue in the abdomen.
Another case is that of a man now about sixty. He reports that he doesnt recall a time when his bowels have not been constipated. In this case the morphological examination showed an over development of the nervous system, a normal thoracic development, a gladio-pubic line that is 4.6 cm. excessive and an umbilico-public line that is 2.5 deficient, and a pelvic diameter 3 cm. deficient.
Here we have a case that is the direct opposite in both structure and function to that of the first. Both cases had had every conceivable kind of treatment with little or no benefit. The lady was in the hands of an osteopath at the time I was asked examine her, and the man had given up everything. During his years of effort to find relief he had been in the hands of practically every materia medica specialist in the previous thirty-six years.
In both these cases the primary factor was structural, and the best that anyone had been able to do for them was palliative. Their defects ought to have been recognized in earliest childhood and by the intelligent control and direction of the life forces they should have been helped to grow to a normal maturity. But intelligence of this kind is still lacking, not only in the home but in the medical profession, as well.
We sit by and patiently wait for something to develop that tells us that things are not right, then try and remove the effect, all the while oblivious of the true condition. Moreover, we compound our blunder by trying to teach and by thinking we are learning materia medica by merely repeating words and phrases about effects. It would be to laugh, were the results not so tragic.
