urally loaded. From the contaminated state of the blood
the functions of animal life also become disturbed; and hence the
lassitude, debility, headache, giddiness and dejected spirits, that
form such frequent accompaniments of constipation.... A distended
caecum, colon, and rectum may also, by the pressure exerted upon the
nerves and vessels of the lower extremities, be the cause of
numbness, cramps, pains and edema of the legs. The edema occasioned
by constipation, if not exclusively confined to one side, will in
all probability be decidedly greater in one leg than in the other."

Case (from _Gaz. Med. de Paris_, July 20, 1839): A woman of fifty was
troubled with habitual diarrhea and frequent calls to urinate, in which
urine could be discharged only by drops. After six years of suffering
and unsuccessful use of remedies, she was examined for the first time
per anum, and an accumulation of fecal matter discovered, forming a
mass the size of an infant's head. This was removed and found to weigh
four pounds. She then got well.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW AUTO-INFECTION AFFECTS THE GASTRIC DIGESTION, AND VICE VERSA.

Frederick the Great said that all culture comes through the stomach.
This saying emphasizes pithily the dependence of psychology upon
physiology. The stomach with the intestines is certainly the source
from which every portion of the body receives its nourishment and most
of its diseases. The physiological _plus_ and _minus_ processes leave
their reflex on the mind.

Prof. Ch. Bouchard, in his lectures on Auto-Intoxication (Oliver's
trans., p. 14), says: "The organism in its normal, as in its
pathological state, is a receptacle and a laboratory of poisons.
Amongst these some are formed by the organism itself, others by
microbes, which either are the guests, the normal inhabitants of the
intestinal tube, or are parasites at second-hand, and disease
producing."

In the preceding chapters we have mentioned some of the most common
cases of retention of excreta in the rectum, sigmoid cavity, colon,
cecum, duodenum and stomach, and how the consequent foul conditions
often resulted in diarrhea. Auto-infection impairs the functions of
every organ in the body, by clogging the pores with poisons and filth.
By the transfer of disease germs from one infected, that is, tainted,
contaminated part of the body to parts that were free from infection,
the kidneys, mucous membrane and skin r