Faecal fermentation as a cause of disease : together with the general rules of treatment to be observed / by C.H.F. Routh.

  • Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Faecal fermentation as a cause of disease : together with the general rules of treatment to be observed / by C.H.F. Routh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    As a general rule, human excrement is richer in nitrogen than that of animals, in which the proportion of 2 per cent, only obtains; and even among men it varies with the quality of food, being among those who live on vegetables about the same as among herbivora, and greater among those whose food is essentially meat. About 7 per cent, at least of fasces consists of the undigested residue of food, such as pieces of muscle, lignine, chlorophyll, wax, etc. There is, also (varying with accidental circumstances), more or less of the secretions of the liver, pancreas, etc. Many of the changes, so brought about are chemical and mecha- nical changes occurring in the gut itself from the admix- ture of varied elements, left residuary during the transit through the intestines. Their occurrence is also best ex- plained on this supposition. The production of faaces, viewed as such, is then simply one of limited oxidation or combustion. The fa3ces contain the unbruised substances of food, such as chlorophyll, wax, etc., which have suffered no change in the organism—the carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen being small in quantity as compared with that in food. In fact, these indigestible matters may be compared to the smoke and soot produced when food is imperfectly burned in fireplace. (Playfair’s Liehig''s Agricultural Che- mistry, fourth edition, p. 176.) Still it cannot be denied that, in part at least, though to a very small degree in health, a portion of the faecal mat- ters are directly secreted from the mucous membrane of the intestines. This secretion, however, is at best only vicarious. Precisely as in amenorrhoea, haematemesis may supersede menstruation, or in jaundice the kidneys may eliminate the bile, so in disease or under extraordinary circumstances, a faecal secretion may occur or be greatly exaggerated. Thus— 1st. Diarrhoea is often persistent, and, at the termination of some diseases, such as phthisis, will come on extensively, and yet after death there is but little faecal matter found in the intestines. This matter must, then, have been se- creted while life persisted. 2nd. In many cases, although the food taken is not greater than usual, the diarrhoeal matters voided are un- usually abundant. 3rd. Liebig has shown that if fibrine, albumen, or caseine, or gelatine, be treated with solid hydrate of potash, and the heat kept up until all the nitrogen is given off as am- monia, and the hydrogen begins to be given off, and the