JUN YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY RELY UPON Hunyadi János THE NATURAL LAXATIVE WATER FOR CONSTIPATION HALF GLASS ON RISING IS THE DOSE PUBLISHED MONTHLY. ATLANTA SUBSCRIPTION $1.00 JOURNAL-RECORD Successor to Vol. XI. OF MEDICINE Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal, Established 1855. ATLANTA, GA., APRIL, 1909. 54th Year No. 1 Just Published GENITO-URINARY DISEASES AND SYPHILIS By EDGAR G. BALLENGER, M. D. LECTURER ON GENITO-URINARY DISEASES, SYPHILIS AND URINALYSIS, ATLANTA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE; EDITOR JOURNAL-RECORD of MEDICINE: GENI-10 URINARY SURGEON TO PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL, ATLANTA, GA. "Barely a page of this work can be read without finding at least one instructive and interesting point. The experienced teacher, the skilled genitourologist, and the learned syphilographer, is revealed in every line."-Medical Record, New York. With 86 Illustrations, 276 Pages. PRACTICAL, CONCISE Price $3.00, Carrying Charges Prepaid E. W. Allen & Co., Publishers ATLANTA, GA. PUBLISHED BY E. W. ALLEN & CO.. FOR THE Auto-Intoxication. By Thomas J. McArthur, M. D., Cordele, Ga. Ocular Symptoms in General Medicine. By Alex. W. Stirling, M. D., C. M., (Edin.); D. P. H. Whooping Cough. By Samuel A. Visanska, Ph.G., M. D., Atlanta, Ga. Report of the Work of the Home Treatment Dispensary for Tuberculosis. By Lewis M. Uterine Deviations, Significance Prevention and Treatment. By R. R. Kime, M. D., Atlanta, Ga. Pistol Shot Wound of Abdomen. Eight Intestinal Perforations; Operation-Recovery. By T. M. No Physician can afford to be indifferent regarding the accurate filling of his Prescriptions, MAR 9 1911 FOST BION, MEDICA ... 1911 LIBRARY Journal-Record of Medicine Successor to Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal, Established 1855, OWNED BY THE ATLANTA MEDICAL JOURNAL.CO. Official Organ Fulton County Medical Society, State Examining Board, EDGAR G. BALLENGER, M. D., Editor. A. W. STIRLING, M. D., C. M., D. P. H., J. S. HURT, B. Ph., M, D, COLLABORATORS DR. W. F. WESTMORLAND, General Surgery. H. F. HARRIS, M. D., Pathology and Bacteriology. E. B. BLOCK, M. D., Diseases of the Nervous System. CYRUS W. STRICKLER, M. D., Legal Medicine and Medical Legislation. E. G. JONES, A. B., M. D., Gynecology. L. M. GAINES, A. B., M. D., Internal Medicine. J. N. LeCONTE, M. D., Diseases of the Stomach and Intestines EDGAR PAULIN, M. D., Opsonic Medicine. R. R. DALY, M. D., Medical Society. A. W. STIRLING, M. D., Etc., Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat. BERNARD WOLFF, M. D., Diseases of the Skin. E. G. BALLENGER, M. D., Diseases of the Genito Urinary Organs. VOL. XII. APRIL, 1909. No. 1 AUTO-INTOXICATION. BY THOMAS J. MC ARTHUR, M. D., CORDELE, GA. In discussing the subject of auto-intoxication before this. body of medical men, I feel that I must apologize for my inability to do so important a subject justice. In the limited time allowed me I shall not be able to go into the detail of every phase of the subject, but will simply offer some established theories together with a few conclusions derived from my own observation and experience. The medical profession is becoming more and more interested in this subject, and has begun to consider it a potent factor in a great many diseased conditions. We are living in an age when the medical profession has changed its attitude of observation. We no longer content our selves with the study of symptoms, anatomical lesions an 1 pathology, but have at last come to study the origin of diseases. We want to know, not only the symptoms, anatomical lesions anl pathological conditions present, but we want to know the causes which produce them. We have found that man contains within himself the causes of many diseases. Intestinal putrefaction and toxins formed in the body are potent factors in many diseases which have not been understood until recently. A study of this condition and the part it plays in disease and health is of great interest and demands very serious consideration upon the part of the medical profession. It has been proven that man is born free from microbes, but during parturition and soon after birth the skin and mucus membrane become infected; and as early as four hours after birth bacteria have been found in the intestinal contents. According to an authority, an adult passes caily in his feces from thirty to fifty billions of bacteria. Although many of the bowel micro-organisms in health are apparently harmless, they can yet become extremely virulent when their surroundings are altered as in disease. The stools very probably eliminate most of the poisons contained in the alimentary canal, but on account of the slow passage of the intestinal contents much of them are absorbed by the intestinal mucous membrane. These microbes multiply very rapidly when the food is of bad quality, indigestible or unsuited to age, and the result is an increase in intestinal fermentation, catarrh or inflammation of the digestive tubes. Sometimes one. takes too much of one kind of food. For instance, when one takes an excess of the carbohydrates more glucose is absorbed than the cells can utilize and some of it passes into the urine. Another person uses too much nitrogenous food which is absorbed, causing an excess of uric acid which may pass into the urine or accumulate in various parts of the body, causing gout, headache and malaise. Roger indicates that these nutrient phenomena produced under the influence of external causes, once established may be transmitted by heredity and that the disorder is often. more marked in the offspring than in the parents. A gouty father has a son subject to migraine, another to diabetis, a third to asthma and yet another to renal lithiasis. In one form of auto-intoxication poisons are formed in the interior of the cells of the body as the result of metabolism, and all these together with part of those formed in the intestinal canal from decomposition finally reach the blood through the lymphatics. The skin, lungs and kidneys eliminate these poisons, but of all the organs of elimination the kidney is the most important. It has been demonstrated that urine is toxic, and when the urine ceases to be secreted the organism is poisoned. The substances of disasimilation have not only become useless, but they are even harmful, for the cell abandons them, unfit for netrition, and not being eliminated the system has become poisoned by its own products. If the poison is eliminated as fast as it is. produced, health is maintained, but if the process of elimination becomes retarded from fatigue, exposure, excesses or any diseased condition, and the supply of it continue, intoxication is produced by accumulation of this toxic material, which is manifested by langour, muscular pain, headache and many nervous reflexes. The general practician prescribes almost daily for headache, muscular pain and some derangement of digestion which is the result of auto-intoxication; and it is this condition which furnishes many patients for the neurologist, some for the occulist and pedriatist as well as for the stomach specialist. Self-poisoning resulting from modern culinary methods and mode of eating is probably the most fruitful source of a doctor's patients. We meet with auto-intoxication frequently as a complication in entero-colitis of children, typhoid fever, malarial fever, the puerpural state as well as many other diseases. In the lying in period we sometimes find it a very troublesome condition, frequently lasting for weeks, even months, occasionally causing sciatica and a disturbance of the functions of nearly all the organs of the body. In entero-colitis it is our greatest foe, as the poisoning from the micro-organisms has a very depressing effect on these little unfortunates. As a complication in the above named diseases, auto-intoxication produces symptoms which are frequently very difficult to handle, and the physician that understands that these symptoms are not produced by an inflammatory condition, but by toxemia is most successful with these cases. One other form of auto-intoxication is that of over-excitement from undue haste and the abnormal conditions of modern life. Verworm arrived at the conclusion that in consequence of |