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ferments, after their penetration into the economy give rise to the mani- 
festations of a real poisoning. Such is the explanation of the strange 
phenomena offered by those who suffer of what is commonly called 
gastric embarrassment, indigestion, biliousness, flatulence, dyspepsia. 
To prevent this state of things we have a double means at our disposal : 
destroy the microbes by intestinal antisepsy and expel them from the 
alimentary canal by purgatives. 
Here we shall remark how much the interesting researches in putrid 
fermentations of the intestines justify the traditional medication of our 
forefathers, and the physicians rediculed by Moliere were not altogether 
wrong after all, when they gave so much importance to the reiterated 
expulsion of atrabiliary humours upon which depended most of the evils 
that afflicted their clients. 
But that is not all; there is something better than to cure an evil 
when it has been produced ; the ideal is to prevent it. Well, it is a 
known fact that animal food, such as meat and fish, is the aliment that con- 
tains the greatest quantity of germs: moreover, we may consider all 
albuminoid compounds as the most favorable soil for the origin and de- 
velopment of ferments ; consequently for the production of these toxic 
alkaloids. 
You may, perhaps think that these considerations upon such a 
wonderful subject as bacteriology, have altogether made me forget our 
bill of fare. Not at all, and you will see that the conclusion of what I 
have just said will naturally bring me back to the starting point of this 
long digression. In fact, if we ever should find ourselves in presence of 
these disorders commonly called flatulent dyspepsia our first duty may 
be the getting rid, by the free administration of purgatives, of the mor- 
bid products gathered in the stomach. But this is not everything; we 
must above all suppress from alimentation all albuminoid food, since it 
constitutes the materia prima of this excess of morbid fermentation. 
Still the patient must be fed. Here is where the usefulness of 
milk comes in, since that aliment is a complete food, as I have already 
said, since it is the nitrogenous nutrient which contains the smallest 
quantity of toxic germs. By the administration of this precious liquid 
food, we shall have suspended all mechanical work from the suffering 
stomach, which will be then in the position of a broken arm laid at rest 
