Autointoxication, or, intestinal toxemia / by J. H. Kellogg.

  • Kellogg, John Harvey, 1852-1943.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Autointoxication, or, intestinal toxemia / by J. H. Kellogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the bacteria that feed on protein. Soon the acids disappear, ammonia takes their place, and the odors of putrefaction appear. Useful or Beneficent Bacteria Notwithstanding the prodigiously mischievous effects that are justly attributed to the action of bacteria, it must be admitted that they are essential in the economy of life. It is only through the action of bacteria that the great cycle of vital activities that constitute the organic world is made possible. For example, the soil from which plants grow owes its origin to the ac¬ tion of bacteria. It is through bacteria growing in the soil that the nitrogen of the air is fixed and prepared for the use of plants. The extent of this activity, which has not been understood until recent times, is so great as to be almost in¬ credible. No better illustration of the prodigious activity of micro-organisms could be offered than the observations of Muntz and Laine who found that a peat bed six and a half feet thick and covering an area of twenty-five acres, if in¬ oculated with nitrifying bacteria, might be made to produce the enormous quantity of fifteen hun¬ dred tons of nitrate daily. The “frost” that ap¬ pears in cellars is saltpetre or nitrate of lime formed by the bacteria of the soil (Burnet). It is believed by some eminent authorities that the great coal beds, and even the extensive de¬ posits of petroleum found buried in the earth, are the result of bacterial action. It is certainly known that it is only through the action of bac¬ teria that the dead bodies of plants and animals