308 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



case would lead to an enforced rest and perhaps also to 

 improved conditions of diet. The result is that while 

 the improved hygienic conditions may not lead to a 

 restoration of normal function, there is for a time a 

 cessation in the progress of the injurious action of the 

 intestinal poisons upon those structures that are most 

 susceptible. Even in cases where there is very little 

 or no improvement in respect to the especially suscep- 

 tible tissues, there is also a cessation of the progressive 

 damage done to the less susceptible cellular elements. 

 For example, a patient suffering from combined indolic 

 and saccharo-butyric excessive intestinal putrefaction 

 may succumb on the side of the nervous system and be 

 compelled to enter an asylum on account of mental 

 depression. Under the improved hygienic conditions 

 there may be only a little improvement in the nervous 

 manifestations, but there may nevertheless be a cessation 

 of the slowly progressive loss of balance between the 

 destruction and the formation of red blood cells. The 

 patient remains moderately ansemic, but does not grow 

 extremely so, because there has been a slight mitigation 

 of the absorption of substances injurious to the blood. 

 It is in fact true that high grades of anaemia do not 

 develop in patients who suffer from the combined indolic 

 and saccharo-butyric type of putrefaction and find their 

 way into an asylum on account of nervous symptoms. 



In general, one may say of the combined indolic and 

 saccharo-butyric type of chronic excessive intestinal 

 putrefaction that the persons in whom these processes 

 are highly developed reach a state of chronic invalidism 



