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 12-1/2 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:
"The feces sometimes accumulate in distinct indurated scybala or in
enormous masses, solid and compact. Taunton, a surgeon of London,
has a preparation of the colon and rectum of more than twenty
inches in circumference containing three gallons of feces, taken
from a woman, whose abdomen was as much distended as in the
maturity of pregnancy. By Lemazurier, another case is reported of a
pregnant woman, who was constipated for two months, from whom,
after death, thirteen and one-half pounds of solid feces were taken
away, though a short time before between two and three pounds had
been scraped out of the rectum. Cases are reported by Dr. Graves of
Dublin, which he saw in women, where from the great distentions in
certain directions of the abdomen, the one was considered to be
owing to a prodigious hypertrophy of the liver, and the other of
the ovary; in the latter of which he removed a bucket-full of feces
in two days. Mr. Wilmot of London has recently given a case where a
gallon of matter was lodged in the cæcum, and the intestines
perforated by ulceration."
Dr. Pavy, in his treatise on _The Functions of Digestion_ (p. 232),
writes:
"The morbid conditions that constipation may occasion are of
various kinds. Under an undue retention of fecal matters within the
colon noxious products may be formed there, and act as irritants
upon the mucous coat, setting up inflammation, followed by
ulceration. It is to be here remarked that fecal matters are
sometimes retained in the sacculi or pouches of the colon, and may
give rise to the circumstances referred to, whilst a passage exists
along the centre of the canal that shall permit a daily evacuation
to occur. The dejections, even, may be loose in character, and
still the same sequence of events ensue. From the irritating
influence of preternaturally retained feces, colicky pains are, as
a rule, induced, and the ultimate effects may be such as to lead to
the production of fatal inflammation.
"The effect of constipation upon the muscular coat of the bowel is,
through distention to which it is subjected, to weaken or
deteriorate its evacuating power. As the result of a great amount
of distention, like as happens in the case of the urinary bladder,
more or less complete paralysis is induced. From the prolonged
retention of fecal matter accompanying constipation,
excrementitious products that ought to be eliminated become
absorbed and thereby contaminate the contents of the circulatory
system. As the result of this contamination, the secretions become
vitiated, and a general disturbance of the conditions of life is
produced. The action of the liver becoming deranged, its
eliminative office is imperfectly discharged, and thus sallowness
of the face and a bilious-tinged conjunctiva are produced. A coated
tongue, foul mouth, loss of appetite, and other dyspeptic
manifestations, accompany the general disorder of the digestive
organs that prevails. The accumulation existing in the colon leads
to a sense of distention and uneasiness in the abdomen. The kidneys
vicariously discharge products that ought to have been eliminated
by the alimentary canal. In this manner the urine becomes
preternaturally loaded. From the contaminated state of the blood
the functions of animal life also become disturbed; and hence the
lassitude, debility, headache, giddiness and dejected spirits, that
form such frequent accompaniments of constipation.... A distended
cæcum, colon, and rectum may also, by the pressure exerted upon the
nerves and vessels of the lower extremities, be the cause of
numbness, cramps, pains and edema of the legs. The edema occasioned
by constipation, if not exclusively confined to one side, will in
all probability be decidedly greater in one leg than in the other."
Case (from _Gaz. Méd. de Paris_, July 20, 1839): A woman of fifty was
troubled with habitual diarrhea and frequent calls to urinate, in which
urine could be discharged only by drops. After six years of suffering
and unsuccessful use of remedies, she was examined for the first time
per anum, and an accumulation of fecal matter discovered, forming a
mass the size of an infant's head. This was removed and found to weigh
four pounds. She then got well.