FASTING
year before his last illness upon liquids alone; the second, the absence of solid particles in the returned fluid of the enemas. Repair of body tissue had been accomplished but imperfectly by absorption through stomach walls and those of the short length of upper intestine that might have functioned. The colon at both bends was contracted so that it was barely possible to insert a finger into the lumen, and the right bend had adhered to the transverse portion of the organ in such manner as to form a loop. The kidneys were greatly congested; the gall cyst was much enlarged; the pancreas and the spleen were, however, normal; adhesions of both upper and lower bowels to the walls of the peritoneal cavity had formed at frequent intervals.
In tracing the medical history of the case, it was later discovered that, at seven years of age, a severe fever accompanied by inflammation of the intestines had been treated medically with opiates, and the heart action, as is usual in cases of this nature, had been stimulated to the highest degree with strychnine and digitalis.
CASE 9, a civil engineer, 27 years of age,
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