his constipation, and at thirty his appetite was so good
that he ate as much as two men. His thirst was intense, but he secreted
urine natural in quantity and quality. Nothing seemed to benefit him,
and purgatives only augmented his trouble. His feces came in small,
hard balls. His tongue was always in good condition, the abdomen not
enlarged, the pulse and temperature normal.

Emily Plumley was born on June 11,1850, with an imperforate anus, and
lived one hundred and two days without an evacuation. During the whole
period there was little nausea and occasional regurgitation of the
mother's milk, due to over-feeding. Cripps mentions a man of forty-two
with stricture of the rectum, who suffered complete intestinal
obstruction for two months, during which time he vomited only once or
twice. His appetite was good, but he avoided solid food. He recovered
after the performance of proctotomy.

Fleck reports the case of a Dutchman who, during the last two years, by
some peculiar innervation of the intestine, had only five or six bowel
movements a year. In the intervals the patient passed small quantities
of hard feces once in eight or ten days, but the amount was so small
that they constituted no more than the feces of one meal. Two or three
days before the principal evacuation began the patient became ill and
felt uncomfortable in the back; after sharp attacks of colic he would
pass hard and large quantities of offensive feces. He would then feel
better for two or three hours, when there would be a repetition of the
symptoms, and so on until he had four or five motions that day. The
following day he would have a slight diarrhea and then the bowels would
return to the former condition. The principal fecal accumulations were
in the ascending and transverse colon and not only could be felt but
seen through the abdominal wall. The patient was well nourished and had
tried every remedy without success. Finally he went to Marienbad where
he drank freely of the waters and took the baths until the bowel
movements occurred once in two or three days.

There is a record of a man who stated that for two years he had not
passed his stool by the anus, but that at six o'clock each evening he
voided feces by the mouth. His statement was corroborated by
observation. At times the evacuation took place without effort, but was
occasionally attended with slight pain in the esophagus and slight
convulsions. Several hours before the evacuation th