350 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



infection (as by B. aerogenes capsulatus) is not in itself 

 difficult, but necessitates patient inquiry and a knowledge 

 of methods of investigation on the part of the physician. 

 The methods of investigating the digestive tract which 

 have been briefly outlined in this volume must prove 

 valuable in enabling the practitioner to determine the 

 presence of abnormal bacterial processes before the onset 

 of the clinical signs of incurable or highly refractory 

 states of intoxication. 



The control of the causal and favoring factors in the 

 establishment of chronic intoxications is partly the duty 

 of the physician. It is, however, a duty which it is 

 unreasonable to expect him to discharge fully under the 

 conditions existing to-day, no matter how capable and 

 willing he may be. It is not possible for any practitioner 

 to undertake the entire education of his patients in 

 respect to knowledge of hygiene, or to develop their 

 will power to the point where such knowledge becomes 

 practically efficient. Yet this is what he must do to- 

 day if he would achieve a high degree of success in the 

 prevention of the worst consequences of the chronic 

 infections of the digestive tract. Before he can become 

 ideally efficient as a physician he must have the intelli- 

 gent cooperation of parents and educational institutions. 



Education in the facts of hygiene and in the practice of 

 intelligent self-control cannot be acquired in a few hours, 

 but necessitates years of appropriate teaching in home 

 and school. So long as the schools and universities 

 almost wholly fail to fit their pupils to meet even the 

 most obvious requirements of practical life, so long will 



