part of the digestive function is deficient, impaired health, or
mental and physical inefficiency expressed in the form of indigestion,
is the result. If the bowel is at fault, constipation is the usual
consequence. A perfectly healthy living machine must maintain a perfect
digestion and regular bowel movements.

THE FUNCTION OF THE STOMACH is to mix and churn the food, and to add
certain ingredients to the mixture so that before it is carried into the
intestines it is (as far as it is the stomach's duty to render it) ready
to be absorbed into the system. Before it reaches that part of the
intestine which absorbs, it is acted upon again and certain other
ingredients are added to it by certain other digestive organs. In time
it is in shape to be used and it is sent along on its way. As it passes
onward the little sucking glands in the wall of the bowel suck up all
the liquid element in the mass of food. The liquid element in the mass
is the food itself, rendered liquid by the stomach and other digestive
organs and juices. The remaining solid mass is that part of the food
which the body cannot use and does not want. By the time the liquid
element is absorbed, the solid mass (always kept moving by the bowel
wall) has reached the rectum, ready to be passed out at once, or very
soon, provided--and upon this provision depends the success of the
entire process,--it has all been done within a certain time. If the
stomach takes too long to do its work we have indigestion. If the bowel
takes too long to do its work we have constipation.

FERMENTATION.--Now let us consider the matter from another standpoint.
If food stays too long in the stomach it begins to ferment. When
anything ferments it makes and evolves gas. You, no doubt, have noticed
many times how the cork pops out of a bottle if its contents are
"working," or fermenting. If you watch that bottle you will notice that
it is quietly or actively evolving air bubbles. That is gas,--gas
manufactured by the process of fermentation. This is exactly the process
that goes on in the stomach or bowel of a dyspeptic, and it is this
collection of foul, poisonous gas that causes the distress and bloated
feeling which every dyspeptic suffers from after eating,--if it is this
"flatulent" type of indigestion which is present.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSTIPATION.--If the food takes too long to pass
through the bowel it causes, as we have stated, constipation. What is
the real significance