Vomiting is infrequent. Intestinal colic is common and often precipitated by purgatives which are so freely administered. Borborygmi and flatus are less apparent in this group’. The faeces are of large diameter, often hard, and streaked with blood. Defæ cation is accompanied by much straining and sometimes pain. This sequence of events leads the child to hold back motions, and accumulated faecal masses distend the rectum. Soft and newly formed faeces are massaged past this fsecal plug, causing a paradoxical diarrhoea or an overflow incontinence. Examination of the abdomen reveals many faecal masses and less often gaseous distension. The circumanal region is soiled with faeces, the sphincter is normal, the anal canal short, the rectum full to capacity with faeces, and the rectal walls are flattened against the walls of the bony pelvis.