THE HYGIENE OF NUTRITION 355 



colon in unusual amounts, owing to deficient digestion 

 and absorption at higher levels, downright putrefac- 

 tion is encouraged. Poisons are generated which act 

 upon the whole system after being absorbed into the 

 blood. Their manifold ill effects are covered by the 

 term auto-intoxication. 



Some signs of this condition have long been recog- 

 nized. They include drowsiness, headache, inertia, 

 and ready susceptibility to fatigue. Other results are 

 attributed to the state when it is persistent. Among 

 these are nervous depression, anemia, troubles with the 

 joints popularly called rheumatism and a disposition 

 toward hardening of the arteries. It is easy to see that 

 auto-intoxication tends to perpetuate itself. If it is 

 set up as a result of a period of indigestion it may pro- 

 long the causal condition by depressing the spirits and 

 enfeebling the reactions of the nervous system. Here 

 is a good example of an effect becoming a cause and so 

 acting as to intensify itself. This is what is known as a 

 " vicious cycle." 



The system will generally rally from indigestion that 

 has its origin in transient unhappiness, anger, or pain. 

 When such moods are long continued as in grief, anxiety, 

 severe disappointment, or intense homesickness auto- 

 intoxication may become a fixed condition that will not 

 remedy itself with the passing of the circumstances that 

 were primarily responsible. The bacterial activities 

 that are rife in the intestine may require something quite 

 different from mental suggestion for their regulation. 



We cannot avoid intestinal infections. The canal 

 is sterile at birth, but never remains so for more than a 

 few hours. Within a few weeks it harbors a countless 

 host of microorganisms of many varieties, subsisting 

 upon the food and secretions, multiplying, and perish- 

 ing to undergo digestion like other organic matter. 

 Billions or trillions of them, living and dead, are thrust 

 out with the feces and yet the supply is maintained. 

 It is not certain that man derives any advantage from 





