CHANGES IN INTESTINES. THE FECES. 197 



to reach the urine finally in the form of ethereal sulphate. 

 Other substances referred to above as putrefactive products 

 follow the same course ; in part they escape with the feces, and 

 in part they suffer absorption to be more or less changed and 

 finally eliminated by the urine. The importance of the two 

 substances for our purpose is mainly diagnostic. They are 

 not absorbed in sufficient quantity to be poisonous, but if found 

 easily in the urine this points to a more than normal intestinal 

 disintegration of protein substances or their derivatives. If 

 the lower intestine becomes for any reason clogged with fecal 

 products which prevent the easy downward passage and escape 

 of the contents of the small intestine, time is given for the 

 more prolonged action of the bacteria, resulting in the accumu- 

 lation of these disintegration products. In nearly all condi- 

 tions of high fever the same thing is observed. The urine 

 test is frequently therefore a suggestion of an approaching 

 pathological condition, or of an aggravated condition. 



In another direction these bacterial products have interest 

 and importance. While the traces of indol, phenol, etc. found 

 may be quite harmless, it does not necessarily follow that other 

 things produced in the same way may be equally harmless. 

 On the contrary, some of the putrefactive products found in 

 the intestine are violent poisons and their absorption consti- 

 tutes an element of danger to the body as a whole. In labo- 

 ratory experiments it is an extremely simple matter to obtain 

 from certain bacterial cultures soluble products which are very 

 toxic. These are the toxins formed by the bacteria and when 

 injected into the circulation of animals are capable of produc- 

 ing poisonous effects. Similar bodies are undoubtedly formed 

 in the intestines if the bacteria there present become excessive 

 in number. Sometimes the microorganisms themselves pene- 

 trate the intestinal walls and pass to other parts of the system, 

 being collected finally by the urine. But the peculiar poisons 

 produced by them are much more likely to be absorbed into 

 the circulation and give rise to special symptoms at points far 

 removed from the infected intestine. No one of these intes- 



