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Should channels, of varying length and numbers, form early in the development of proctitis, the sufferer is usually found to be free from piles, or hemorrhoids, for the reason that the channels have afforded an outlet to the inflammatory product. The formation of lengthy channels also prevents to a great extent the development of skinny tabs round about the integument of the anus. This is some compensation to the sufferer for the labor of scratching and for enduring the painful itching so often present. Some suffer only from pain along the channels themselves, while others experience a slight disturbance of the nervous system; yet all must be more or less poisoned from the absorption of so large an amount of the contents of the channels and cavities.

In the cavities and along the channels the areolar tissue is of a mahogany color, and no channel is traced to its end so long as the tissues present a bruised, inflamed appearance. In some cases the inflammatory product has destroyed the areolar tissue attached to the integument at and near the anus, frequently to the extent of leaving a hollow space or cavity of surprising dimensions. I have met only a few cases in which the channels were opened by pus forming in them. Those that are very shallow, the walls being friable, may break and form a fissure of the anus; or a little anal fistula may arise from a slight suppuration at its end in the integument near the anus.

In cases where the channels are few and short, whether itching be present or not, the pile tumors are likewise few and of moderate size, demonstrating the intimate relation of the aggravation of either of the symptoms or the moderation of both in the same case. Very frequently pile tumors have channels extending from them to the junction of the mucous membrane and integument of the anus, or even under the integument about the anus, forming rugæ, or tabs.

The number and size of pile tumors would seem to depend on how completely the inflammatory product is imprisoned in the tissues in what is termed the “pile-bearing” region. Often the treatment of piles, or hemorrhoids, aids very much in the cure of itching at the anus—by destroying a part of the channels involved in the pile structures in the mucous membrane of the lower end of the rectum and extending along under the anal membrane and the integument of the anus.

The meshes and layers of the mucous membrane, as well as the space occupied by the areolar tissue, are stretched or pouched by the inflammatory product.

My observation forces me to conclude that the inflammatory product imprisoned in the areolar meshes, between the mucous membrane and the muscular layers, is the principal factor in forming piles and the channels so often found in the same region. Of course, obstructed circulation, congested veins, capillaries, and arterioles, and a more or less apparent varicose condition, increase the size of the pile tumors and the general thickness of the mucous membrane over the region affected by the disease.

The process occasioning the separation of the mucous membrane from its areolar attachment or bed often extends the whole length of the rectum, giving the mucous membrane the loose and raised appearance that a piece of thin silk would have if laid on over that surface. The fatty or areolar tissue under the skin about the anus suffers likewise by being destroyed, leaving a hollow cavity or a large channel of great length under the skin. The separation of the mucous membrane and integument about the anus from their areolar attachment permits of prolapse of the mucous membrane and integument that form the anal canal and skin around the orifice.

It would seem that the channels, pile sacs, and cavities serve as temporary reservoirs for the inflammatory product, a portion of which the system absorbs and another portion of which escapes through the mucous membrane and integument. In escaping in this way it occasions itching and pain. The itching or soreness does not in all cases extend throughout the whole length of the channel. A few inches of the channel farthest from its origin may be the seat of the greatest disturbance, and the sufferer and physician alike are usually unaware that the source of the trouble is in the tissues of the anus and rectum.

The marked improvement in the health of those that have been cured of both the morbid condition produced by the inflammatory product and the cause of that condition is evidence that the general vitality of the system had been greatly lowered, even though the most annoying of the symptoms, such as piles, itching, or acute pain, had not been present. The lack of annoyance along the channel for a certain period may be due to a limited production, or to a rapid absorption of the inflammatory product by the system.

Proctitis and the attendant symptoms just described have been overlooked by the medical profession. Physicians have confined their attention to two symptoms—piles and fistula. After undergoing a surgical operation for these, the patient is considered cured. What ignorance, or rather short-sightedness, to remove only the annoying symptom, and then to pronounce the patient healed! Let me ask my professional brethren why they do not concern themselves with the underlying cause of the symptom or symptoms, and whether they suppose this cause is going out of business. Surely it is a grave mistake to concern one’s self with the leading symptom merely—to remove that, and to leave its cause intact. When the disease-producing cause remains to generate its poisonous effects in the system, opportunities exist for further symptoms to develop.

The system may be already depleted of vitality, and the harsh treatment for the purpose of removing a mere symptom may only make the sufferer’s condition more deplorable—if it does not indeed cause death.

There are other symptoms of proctitis than piles and fistula, which remain after the conventional surgical operation for their removal. Obstipation and con­sti­pa­tion are usually symptoms of proctitis, and will persist until the inflammation in the upper half of the rectum and sometimes in a portion of the sigmoid flexure is cured.

The victim of proctitis has two marked sources of poisoning of the system: one proceeding from the absorption of the inflammatory product, and the other from undue retention of the waste matter of the body that should pass out by the lower bowel.

Inflammation of a mucous membrane causes structural changes in the tissues involved in the morbid process, and not infrequently it becomes the seat of a malignant disease.

The reader may be familiar with the white, loose, alveolar (honeycomb-like) network of elastic tissue (called fat) just under the skin and mucous membrane. Consult in this connection the cut on page 24.