What is "consumption of the bowels"

Consumption \Con*sump"tion\ (?; 215), n. [L. consumptio: cf. F. consomption.]

1. The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction.

   Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption.
   --Burke.

2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

3. (Med.) A progressive wasting away of the body; esp., that form of wasting, attendant upon pulmonary phthisis and associated with cough, spitting of blood, hectic fever, etc.; pulmonary phthisis; -- called also pulmonary consumption.

   Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.

   Syn: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.