British citizens in the Victorian era often suffered from gastric aliments including constipation. Just as today, consumption of excess meat was blamed for much of this and, of course, the suggestion was lampooned by the cartoonists of the day.
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The wealthy resorted to their pharmacists to cure constipation, most of the pills and potions contained a high proportion of soap, the lesser folk drank a great deal of beer which is a fine cure. The upper echelons would often retreat to Spa towns to drink the mineral waters, these having some content of hydrogen sulphide, smelling and tasting foul but a splendid purge.

That's my contribution to divert attention away from the current putrid politics in the US for 5 minutes.