AUTO-INTOXICATION.

The repeated observations that in the various infectious diseases toxins were produced by extrinsic bacteria, which toxins were in the main responsible for the symptoms, caused pathologists and clinicians to direct their attention to the bacteria normally present in the body, particularly in the intestinal canal. These observations amply repaid them, indeed almost too well, when we consider that it is about as common now to ascribe obscure symptoms to auto-infection as it was formerly to a touch of malaria; although that latter idea has not yet been entirely dispelled from the professional mind. Nevertheless, all are now convinced that auto-intoxication does play a most important rôle in many troubles as yet but little understood. Looking at the subject from its present aspect, which covers a much larger field than formerly, auto-intoxication may be regarded as including several different processes: The effects of toxins that are manufactured within the economy