ust be so arranged as to provide this. A list of these foods is
provided elsewhere in this book. Certain other foods stimulate
intestinal activity, not because of their bulk, but because of the
chemical elements they contain. All forms of sugar, the sugars of
fruits, the acids of fruits and vegetables, are excellent natural
laxatives. Sour milk and buttermilk, oils and fats, are also of distinct
value in this respect.

On the other hand, soups, gruels, porridges, and purees are constipating
because the digestive process reduces them to liquids and leaves no bulk
for the bowel to act upon. New bread, hot biscuits, "noodles," and
doughy foods are also objectionable, especially to children. Hot baths,
hot drinks, hot enemas, and sweating are also constipating because they
extract so much liquid from the bowel leaving the contents excessively
dry.

ABUSE OF CATHARTIC DRUGS AND APERIENT WATERS.--This is a widespread
evil; it may justly be regarded as a national curse. The victims of this
custom do not realize that they are addicted to a habit which must be
rightly regarded as equally as bad as the drink habit, so far as its
ultimate effect on the general health and the prospect of longevity is
concerned. Its popularity is a product of our national vice of
indiscriminate eating and drinking. It is more common among the class
who live in restaurants, hotels, and boarding houses, who keep late
hours, eat late suppers and who do not exercise enough. These
individuals eat too much and live too high. After a time the liver
becomes sluggish, the stomach fails to digest properly, the bowels lose
their tone, and flatulent indigestion or some other more or less serious
condition follows; to maintain the pace, to feel and keep fit, they
discover that a glass of some advertised aperient or laxative water
before breakfast works wonders, tides them over for the time being and
keeps them "in the ring." They compliment themselves and push the
specter of age aside.

The thought that they were not "as young as they once were," or that
they must go slow, was not a very pleasing suggestion, so having found a
"cure" by adding another bad habit on top of an existence which is
composed of nothing but bad habits, they start all over again. The
suggestion that their trouble is a warning that "things are going wrong"
and that the whole plan of living must be radically and promptly changed
does not meet with their approval, and so the Department of