INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 339 



committed gross errors in diet, in sexual life, etc. The 

 removal of the obviously injurious conditions in these 

 cases is almost always followed by a quick and satis- 

 factory improvement, provided the patient be not 

 burdened by significant neurotic taints or has not 

 developed a considerable degree of ansemia. 1 In persons 

 who have had the benefit of much rest and recreation 

 and have cared for themselves under luxurious conditions 

 of living, the outlook is much less promising because in 

 many of these cases most of the ordinary therapeutic 

 measures have already been exhausted. It should be 

 remembered, however, that even in such cases a period 

 of rest of one or two years under favorable conditions 

 may bring about a great change in physical state, while 

 short periods of rest show very little effect on the patient. 

 For those who find it very difficult to follow in a rational 

 way the advice of a physician, owing to inability to exert 

 the necessary self-control, a period of residence in a good 

 sanitarium under the immediate supervision of a tactful 

 and intelligent practitioner may do much more good 

 than home treatment. Similarly a cure at Carlsbad 

 under rigid conditions of diet and general hygiene may 

 be of very distinct benefit in reducing the manifestations 

 of a chronic anaerobic infection of the intestine. 



In extreme cases of chronic excessive intestinal 

 putrefaction in which nearly everything has been tried 



1 1 regard the presence of a high degree of ansemia and the per- 

 sistence of a high grade of infection with the gas-bacillus as bad 

 prognostic signs, especially if associated with a persistently intense 

 dimethylamidobenzaldehyde reaction of the urine. 



