This is an inflammation of the lower part of the rectum, caused by constipation and over-eating of highly seasoned or fatty food, which produces great fullness of the portal circulation. It is also caused by diseases of the liver, heart, uterus, and diseases of other organs. Avoid tea, strong coffee, pickles, sour fruits, all alcoholic drinks, green and canned corn and coarse vegetables. When acute stage is relieved, diet similar to that of constipation will probably give relief.

Injections of hot water are very beneficial, although cold water will sometimes give better results. Avoid straining at stools, keep quiet, and especially keep the bowels active. Intestinal Indigestion.

This is intended to cover various disorders of the intestines, pancreas and liver, that are mainly functional. The stomach specialist meets a good many cases where the stomach is practically inactive, but intestinal digestion good. The faddists take such examples and construct one inflexible rule, and when applied to other conditions the wonderful cure advocated utterly fails. Another class have good, active stomachs and gastric digestion, but poor intestinal digestion. Such persons have often been treated by various physicians, for many years with poor results, because the stomach was not the seat of the disease. There is such close sympathy between the stomach and the intestines, that it is not easy to determine the real nature of many disorders. If the intestines fail to perform their functions properly, the food may be carried out before digested or may be so long retained as to cause putrefaction. It is obvious that the stomach cannot empty itself when the outlet is clogged. On the other hand, if the stomach fails to perform its work and discharges its contents in bad condition, the symptoms will be very similar to those when the intestines are solely at fault.

The causes of intestinal dyspepsia are very much the same as those of the stomach. In most cases it will be found that the intestines are permanently dilated, and have, in a measure, lost their power to propel their contents. In such cases constipation and diarrhoea will alternate for a time, with a tendency toward one or the other. Among women the excessive use of sweets and strong tea are dietetic factors, but it is probable that corset constriction and the constipation of child-bearing stand out above all other causes.

Among men the use of tobacco and alcoholic liquors, especially beer, are prominent causes.

There will be a feeling of great fullness and weight in the abdomen, three or four hours after meals, accompanied with more or less pain, and there may be occasional vomiting without much nausea. The vomit will usually contain bile enough to give it a greenish cast, and when it is brought up without nausea or retching, it is one of the most characteristic signs of intestintal disorders. Nervous vomiting occurs without great nausea, but it has no time relation to meals, and rarely brings up bile. Violent retching in catarrh of the stomach, or attacks of malaria or other acute infectious diseases, often bring up bile, but is accompanied with intense nausea, and can hardly be confounded with chronic intestinal disorders.

All foods that are hard to dissolve and quick to ferment, must be left out of the dietary, starch and fats are to be used in small quantities, without sugar, syrup, cake, pudding or preserves. All astringent fruits, vinegar, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green or canned corn are likewise prohibited. Cereal mushes and gruels are advocated by some for all disorders, but they will not do for intestinal dyspepsia. The cereals must be eaten in the form of dry unleavened bread, crackers or dry meal twice cooked.

If there is a tendency to chronic diarrhoea, with inflammation and mucous stools, the cereals must be free from bran, but in most cases fine bran in the bread will produce healthy action. When the intestinal starch digestion is bad, it is Urgent that only dry bread be used, so that a very large amount of saliva will be secreted. This will insure good salivary digestion, which is always important, and absolutely indispensable in intestinal dyspepsia. To put it in another way: The food must be prepared for absorption in the mouth and the stomach. Now as the stomach only digests proteid foods, it follows that they must be used in preference to starches for a large part of the diet, and that the starches must be aseptic, extra well cooked, roasted and eaten dry. The foods best adapted are very fine wheat bran, starch (cereals) dextrinized by a high degree of heat, wheat gluten, malted nuts, cream, nut oils, fresh lean meat, stewed, roasted or boiled, baked apples, baked bananas, stewed peaches, small quantities of baked potatoes, fish milk, eggs, gelatine, bean and pea soup, when strained. If the patient is weak, meat juice will be most serviceable. Boil a thick piece of steak and grind and express the juice by as high a pressure as obtainable.

Sweet or very sour fruit must be sparingly used, when there is pain or great tenderness. Four to six ounces of milk and hot water, or milk and cereal coffee may be taken with the meals, but no other drink. Diseases of Pancreas.

The pancreas performs the largest part in digestion, but its abnormalities are the least understood of any organ of the body. Owing to its position in the body, it cannot be examined externally, and internally only after death. Apparently it does not produce any violent smyptoms, but experiments on animals prove that it is indispensable to life, and many autopsies show that the pancreas was the principal organ diseased. It is now believed that diabetes is mainly a disease of the pancreas and liver. Some of the most recent medical writers learnedly describe the various structural changes produced by different diseases of the pancreas, but leaving out conjecture there are only two methods of diagnosing diseases of the pancreas, and that is by chemical analysis of the urine and of the stools. Sugar in the urine and excessive fat in the stools indicate disease of the pancreas. There is not much clinical experience reported in the dietetic treatment of pancreatic diseases, but as both starches and fats are mainly dependent upon pancreatic secretions to render them capable of absorption, it follows that foods of this class must be artificially treated. Fats must be emulsified and as cream is the only natural emulsion it would seem to be a suitable food.