of mechanical force is exerted by the gases in the intestinal canal. They distend not only the muscular walls of the intestines and stomach but the strong abdominal walls as well, until the clothing worn has to be loosened for ease and comfort. This more or less extreme mechanical pressure may account for many cases of hernia, prolapse of the uterus, dislocation of various organs, disturbance of the circulation of the blood, and interference with the function of the nervous system, as indicated by its many protests in the way of aches and pains. Naval-constructor Hobson has lately demonstrated the dynamic power of gas confined in bags or receptacles in raising battleships; and it still remains for some physiologist or pathologist to demonstrate the morbid dynamic results of gases confined in the alimentary apparatus. The deleterious effect of the abnormal quantity of gases on all the organs of the body is imperfectly understood at present, but will be better apprehended when we are able to study more minutely the pathogenic poisons of the human system. It is known, however, that a stream of carbonic acid gas, or even of hydrogen, will paralyze a muscle against which it is directed.
CHAPTER V.
KEY TO AUTO-INFECTION.
In a previous chapter we stated that the average quantity of fecal discharge daily, by an adult, is from four to six ounces, and that of this weight 75 per cent is water. We referred of course to the daily passage from the bowels alone, not including that from the bladder.
Our studies have thus furnished us with the key wherewith to unlock the secret chambers of auto-infection. What is that key? It is the discovery that the system may possibly absorb as high as three-fourths of this feculent substance in the colon; that this absorption is made possible by an obstructed or sluggish intestinal canal where disease germs are propagated and lodged; that these germs, along with a certain amount of excrement, invade the tissues by absorption; and that we thus have the system constantly saturated with poisonous germs and filth, re-excreted, re-absorbed and re-secreted—no one knows how many times—by the various organs of the body.
That the importance of intestinal cleanliness may be better appreciated, I will quote from the following authors on the subjects of excretion, absorption and circulation of the intestinal fluids.
Dr. Murchison states that:
"From what is now known of the diffusibility of fluids through animal membranes, it is impossible to conceive bile long in contact with the lining membrane of the gall-bladder, bile-ducts, and intestine, without a portion of it (including the dissolved pigment) passing into the blood. A circulation is constantly taking place between the fluid contents of the bowel and the blood, the existence of which, till within the last few years, was quite unknown, and which even now is too little heeded. It is now known, says Dr. Parker, that in varying degrees there is a constant transit of fluid from the blood into the alimentary canal, and as rapid absorption. The amount thus poured out and absorbed in twenty-four hours is almost incredible, and of itself constitutes a secondary or intermediate circulation never dreamt of by Harvey. The amount of gastric juice alone passing into the stomach in a day, and then re-absorbed, amounted in the case lately examined by Grunewald to nearly 23 imperial pints. If we put it at 12 pints we shall certainly be within the mark. The pancreas, according to Kröger, furnishes 12½ pints in twenty-four hours, while the salivary glands pour out at least 3 pints in the same time. The amount of the bile is probably over 2 pints. The amount given out by the intestinal mucous membrane cannot be guessed at, but must be enormous. Altogether the amount of fluid effused into the alimentary canal in twenty-four hours amounts to much more than the whole amount of blood in the body (which is 18 pounds in a man weighing 143 pounds); in other words, every portion of the blood may, and possibly does, pass several times into the alimentary canal in twenty-four hours. The effect of this continual out-pouring is supposed to be to aid metamorphosis; the same substance more or less changed seems to be thrown out and re-absorbed until it be adapted for the repair of tissues, or become effete."
The reader will readily perceive how the system may become so charged that other organs of the body will vicariously attempt to play the part of a receptacle and conduit for the bowel, in order to excrete and eliminate ancient and offensive filth and bacterial poisons. The phenomenon of vicarious excretion may occur through the kidneys, lungs, skin, throat, nose, vagina, or uterus, thus keeping up chronic diseases and discharges that would not exist but for the chronic constipation or even for incomplete action of the bowels each day. Over-distention of the rectum, sigmoid and colon, due to the pressure of gases and the impaction of feces, results in inflammation, ulceration, stricture, appendicitis, abscess, strangulation, intussusception, and abnormal ballooning or roominess in certain portions of these intestines or conduits. This roominess, though it becomes filled with feces, and often with liquids, permits of sufficient space for even the daily passage of feces without dislodging the stored contents. The fact that there is a passage daily deceives both sufferer and medical adviser as to the source of the poisonous condition of the system, and masks the origin of such disorders as chronic inflammation and ulceration of the nose, throat, lungs, stomach, duodenum, colon, appendix vermiformis, uterus, bladder, kidneys and edema of the legs. But these evidences of auto-infection are generally preceded and accompanied by a general loss of vitality and weight, by anemia, by a lowering of the resisting power of the organism—all of which produce a fit soil for the various diseases to which flesh is heir. As soon as the system becomes saturated with bacteria and effete matter, auto-intoxication results, in which condition there is but little or no store of vitality for resistance, reaction and recuperation.
Dr. Bright has recorded several instances of fecal accumulation in the colon mistaken for enlargement of the liver and for malignant tumors. In one of the cases there was jaundice which disappeared after free evacuation of the bowels. Frerichs also relates a case where enlargement from fecal accumulation was at first ascribed to a pregnant uterus, and subsequently, on the supervention of deep jaundice, to an enlarged liver, but in which purgatives dispelled the patient's anxiety about a diseased liver and at the same time her hopes for a child.
Dr. N. Chapman, in his Clinical Lectures (p. 304), says:
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