The symptoms of constipation of the small bowel are dry stools, usually light in colour.

To cure this type, more water should be drunk, so that the waste may pass to the large bowel in a fluid state.  Drink freely between meals, especially in summer, when profuse perspiration often causes obstinate constipation.

The symptoms of constipation of the large bowel are furred tongue, foetid breath, sallow or jaundiced complexion, and mottled stools of round, hard balls, the first portion being very firm, and the remainder nearly liquid.  There are occasional attacks of colic.

The first step towards cure is to form regular habits.  At a suitable time, say shortly after breakfast, or after supper if you suffer from haemorrhoids, go to the lavatory, whether you feel uncomfortable or not.  Wait patiently, do not try to hasten matters by violent straining, and if for some weeks there is little improvement, do not despair, for the habits of a lifetime are not overcome in five minutes, just because you have decided to amend your careless ways.  A short, brisk walk beforehand often helps.

If necessary, use a chamber and “squat” as savages do.  In this position, the thighs support the abdomen, and force is exerted without straining.  Massaging the abdomen by firmly rubbing it round and round, clockwise, with the hand, often does good, as does pressure with a finger on the flesh between the end of the backbone and the anus.  Try every method before taking purgatives, for with patience and determination these are rarely necessary.

Carefully cooked and “concentrated”, easily digested and “pre-digested” foods contain little residue; every meal should contain some indigestible matter to stimulate the intestines.  Brown bread, porridge, lettuce, cress, apples and coarse vegetables are all good for this purpose, but if taken too freely may cause heartburn and flatulence.  Meat, milk, fish, eggs and most patent foods have not enough waste.  Boiled milk is very constipating.

Purgatives, injections and medicines, alone, are useless, for the bowel becomes still more insensitive to natural calls under the artificial stimulation of drugs, on which it becomes so entirely dependent that without their aid it will not act.

It may be necessary to clean out the bowel by an enema.

Make a lather with clean warm water and plain soap, and fill the enema syringe (a half-pint size is useful).  Smear the nozzle with vaseline, lean forward and insert into the anus, pointing a little to the left.  Press the bulb, withdraw the nozzle, retain the liquid a few moments and a desire to go to stool will be felt.

A simpler plan is to buy glycerin suppositories.  One is inserted into the anus and acts like an injection.  It must be clearly understood that these are emergency measures.

If internal piles come down at stool, do not allow them to remain and get engorged with blood.  See that your hands are scrupulously clean, and your nails closely cut and free from dirt; then moisten the middle finger with a little vaseline taken to the lavatory for the purpose, and gently return the haemorrhoids, sitting down for a few minutes to retain them.