ed the fact that the "digestive secretions" in a man weighing 140
pounds amount to twenty-three pounds in twenty-four hours; now add to
these the food and liquids taken in that period, and you will form some
estimate of the work done in the human chemical laboratory in its
normal and abnormal states.

We noted further that substances confined too long in receptacles
decompose and generate pathogenic poisons, that is, poisons productive
of disease; and that the intestinal reservoirs are no exception to this
law of putrefactive changes. How could we avoid drawing the inference,
therefore, that disease-breeding germs, (generated in the organism and
hence called "autogenetic"), and their auto-infection, _i.e._,
absorption by the system, are an inevitable consequence of the undue
retention and fermentation of the contents of these reservoirs: a
consequence, in other words, of that intestinal uncleanliness commonly
called biliousness, constipation, indigestion.

By far the most common and immediate source of autogenetic
(self-produced) poisons and their auto-infection, is some degree of
chronic constipation and the deadening, smothering effects of
constipation on digestion; an effect analogous to what takes place when
we allow waste material or ashes to bank up against a fire, shutting
off its draft. Does the fire then continue to digest the coal? Clog up
the receptacle for ashes and the coal grows cold. Dam up the colon or
sigmoid and digestion is disturbed, diminished and debased, as
evidenced by the local and general discomfort, and later by the train
of inevitable disorders.

Indigestion is a household word. It has the widest range of all the
diseases, because it forms a part of almost every other; and some
diseases, such as chronic catarrh and pulmonary consumption, are in
many cases produced by indigestion; which in turn had its source in
chronic constipation caused by injury or inflammation of the lower
bowel, as explained in our first chapter.

Diminished nutrition, impoverished blood, and loss of weight of from
ten to twenty-five pounds, are the signs that indicate the coming
disaster to the sufferer from auto-intoxication: the thoroughly
poisoned state of the system resulting from auto-infection.

Vessels used by the dairyman and by those who furnish us with food
products and liquids are kept scrupulously clean. Why? Because it is a
question of loss of trade--of money. Should these vessels be used when
foul fr