ased conditions. These three stages which are clear to the
experienced eye of the physician may to the patient seem to be
indistinguishable, the one from the other; and it must not be forgotten
that the three conditions do not mean simply that a smaller or larger
part of the intestine is clogged by its contents, but that the whole
system is involved as well.

It cannot indeed be otherwise with the rapid circulation of the blood,
nor need it excite wonder that such patients are thin and debilitated
by the deadening of the powers of absorption, assimilation and
elimination.

As a rule the many thin and puny infants and children of either sex,
with bony points well exposed under a tightly drawn skin, which latter
is clay-colored and pimply; children with headache and languor, without
healthy interest in either studies or play;--these are the victims of
intestinal poisoning as described. If they have inherited a spare habit
of body from their parents such bodily ills will manifest themselves
the more quickly. They ought to be fat and hearty as are the young of
animals, but alas many are not! When the young animal is spare, a few
days of rest with good diet will put flesh on it, demonstrating that
the state of the bowels and the powers of assimilation are intact. Why
does not man take on flesh in a similar way?

If the intelligent animals could talk, they would undoubtedly make all
manner of fun of the intestinal canals which they see walking about,
with a little flesh here and there seemingly by accident, and a skin
which is clay-colored or jaundiced, anemic or flabby, the owner of it
all poisoning himself by decomposition in his intestines!

CHAPTER XVIII.

INFLAMMATION.

If we desire to get a general idea of the changes that occur in an
organ when it becomes inflamed, we must first have a knowledge of the
normal structure of that organ, even though that knowledge be but
superficial. Taking the intestines, for example, we see under the
microscope that they are composed of layers of different tissues,
called connective, epithelial, muscle, and nerve tissue; the first two
forming a large part of the structure.

In the connective (and fatty) tissues a great many blood-vessels are
found (varying in different parts of the organ), the existence of which
is necessary for the production of inflammation, since at the very
outset of the process, a discharge (or exudation) takes place from
these blood-vessels, accomp