n the blood must be bad, and the effect of the bad blood upon
the nervous system and the other vital organs cannot be good. Now if
this process has been going on for many years, the condition of the
woman, who is its victim, as an efficient machine, compared with the
woman in whom this condition never did exist, must be very different
indeed. This condition of affairs--inasmuch as constipation is so common
in women--must have a tremendous significance when estimating the
vitality and efficiency of the coming generation.

We might go much further and yet be sure of our position, and maintain
that it is this national autotoxemia, this scourge of womanhood, that is
to a great extent responsible for the characteristic American "vice of
neurasthenia," and of the domestic infelicity and unhappiness which are
so common in the large cities of this country. If we add to the
intestinal autotoxemia of constipation, the tendency to, or vice of,
indiscriminate eating and drinking--of which the American people are
particularly guilty--we would be on firmer ground. In fact we would feel
that we had pointed out the one underlying cause of most of the domestic
irritability prevalent to-day, which is of serious importance, and which
is, fortunately, capable of correction. It is a matter of everlasting
and continuous education.

THE REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD HEALTH.--There are certain fundamental basic
requirements which are essential to good health: fresh air, good water,
a reasonable amount of physical and mental exercise, nutritious food,
freedom from unnecessary and unreasonable worry, frequent bathing, and a
daily movement of the bowels. The reason why constipation is of such
serious importance is because it is the only basic requirement of good
health that afflicts a large majority of the race at the same time. The
health of so many is being undermined by this one affliction, that it
dominates all other factors that have any bearing upon posterity. A
woman may enjoy all the essential conditions necessary to good health,
yet she may be constipated, and the presence of this condition will
undermine, in her constitution, all the benefits she derives from her
advantageous environments. It will do more; it will be responsible for
the disposition,--the temperament,--of that woman. The natural
disposition of that woman may be an amicable one; if it were allowed to
express itself naturally it would be kind, gentle, considerate,
affectionate. No