Autointoxication literature

Two books on “autointoxication”, a once-popular theory of self-poisoning from the bowel that physicians abandoned.

• Auto-intoxication as a Cause and Complication of Disease

  W. Louis Chapman · 1903

  A 1903 paper from Providence on “auto-intoxication”, the idea that the body poisons itself with its own waste: cytolysins, urinary components, bile acids, ptomaines and leucomaines.

  Contents45 sections listed

• Autointoxication Or Intestinal Toxemia

  John Harvey Kellogg · 1918

  Kellogg’s 1918 case for intestinal “autointoxication”: bacteria, putrefaction, meat and the intestinal flora. His preface mentions the “radical surgical measures” of the surgeon William Arbuthnot Lane, whose…

  Contents177 sections listed

These are historical texts. Autointoxication, “thirst cures” and several of the diets described here were abandoned by medicine long ago. Read them for the history; ask a doctor about your own health.