274 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



the quantity of this substance is very extreme. I 

 believe also that the phenomenon of indigouria never 

 arises except where indol is being produced in the intes- 

 tine in uncommonly large amounts and is subsequently 

 absorbed in uncommon abundance. 



INDIVIDUAL SUSCEPTIBILITIES TO DIFFERENT ENTEROG- 

 ENOUS POISONS AS POSSIBLE FACTORS IN DETERMIN- 

 ING CLINICAL TYPES 



Instances are many in which clinical experience has 

 made it clear that two persons of approximately the same 

 weight react differently to the same drug, and do so 

 regularly. This is true of commonly used drugs, such 

 as strychnine, morphine, cocaine, digitalis, and antipyrin. 

 A scientific explanation of these differences is for most 

 cases not now possible. That they do not depend on 

 gross differences in rapidity of absorption is shown in 

 the case of some of these drugs by the fact that sub- 

 cutaneous injections give rise to the same qualitative 

 differences. The individual variations are to be at- 

 tributed rather to idiosyncrasies of the neuro-muscular 

 system the mechanism through which functional 

 derangement most readily finds expression in the form 

 of symptoms. The nervous system may prove uncom- 

 monly susceptible either on account of inherent physico- 

 chemical peculiarities of its constituent nervous ele- 

 ments or because it is not adequately protected from the 

 action of poisons by hepatic and other cells which have 

 the power to bind, or bind and oxidize, or bind and oxi- 



