38 MICROBES AND TOXINS 



pas, tout ce qui tue ne pue pas." (What stinks does not kill, 

 what kills does not stink.) 



A Belgian physiologist, Falloise, has shown that the contents 

 of the large intestine where the putrefications are going on are 

 much less toxic than those of the small intestine which is free 

 from putrefaction. The toxicity of faecal matter left in the 

 incubator, with all its contained bacteria, diminishes instead of 

 increases. Hence the toxicity is not in proportion to the 

 putrefaction. 



What then causes those gastro-intestinal disorders, in 

 particular infantile diarrhoea, with symptoms resembling typhoid 

 fever or cholera ? It must be poisons of some kind, but poisons 

 which are the result not of bacterial decomposition of the 

 intestinal contents but of abnormal metabolism of the food. 



This theory of non-microbial intoxication, is opposed to that 

 which regards microbial putrefaction as the cause of the poisoning. 

 Finkelstein, for example, says that there is no specific infecting 

 organism in infantile diarrhoea and that the same symptoms 

 appear with very different intestinal flora ; according to 

 Nobecourt and Rivet, the intestinal flora depends on the diet 

 and the disorders of digestion, its role being secondary and 

 rather an effect than a cause. The principal role is played by 

 those poisons which are produced directly in the digestion of 

 the food-stuffs. 



But though it is true that the study of intestinal putrefaction 

 is not far advanced, the opponents of this theory must acknow- 

 ledge that still less is known about the auto-intoxications. Nothing 

 definite has been established in connection with the ptomaines 

 and toxalbumins which have been incriminated. Besides, the 

 argument of Falloise on the slight toxicity of the faecal matter 

 is not justified, for he forgets that the faeces do not represent 

 actually the intestinal contents, these latter having lost 

 before discharge precisely those poisons which have been 

 absorbed by the mucous membrane. 



The phenols, for example, which are produced in our intestine 

 are absent in the faeces, but appear in the urine. The volatile 

 fatty acids also are in greater quantity in the urine than in the 



