THE RATE OF PROGRESS OF FOOD RESIDUES THROUGH THE BOWEL

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Abstract
It would seem at first sight as if there could be little justification for another article on the rate of progress of food residues through the bowel, because today almost every physician and layman is satisfied that it takes normally from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Every roentgenologist knows that most of the barium leaves the body within twenty-four hours, and that only traces can be seen after forty-eight hours. It appears now, however, from the studies that we have made that the giving of a large amount of indigestible material like barium with a small meal of gruel or milk must bring about unusual and abnormal conditions. The added bulk of indigestible residue may act perhaps like a large dose of agar or of liquid petrolatum, and, as is well known, patients who are being examined roentgenographically to find the cause of a severe constipation will not infrequently come back

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