Cellular toxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan... and Frederick G. Novy.
- Victor Clarence Vaughan
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cellular toxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan... and Frederick G. Novy. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![fact which has been illustrated specifically in the preceding chapter, that among the metabolic products of the animal body there are to be found substances which are more or less toxic in their action. By the word autogenous, as indicating a class of diseases, we under- stand that in these disorders the maieries morbi is a product of some cell of the body, and not, as in the case of the infectious diseases, of cells introduced from without the body. Much has been said about auto-intoxication, and in our opinion a large part of what has been said upon this subject is without sufficient scientific foundation. Auto-intoxication is a word now frequently used to cover up our ignorance, and the time has not yet come for a thorough investiga- tion of this subject. Indeed, it is almost impossible in a given case to exclude external factors which influence diseased conditions. While we must admit that poisons are formed in the animal body, it is not always easy—in fact we may say it is never easy — to be certain that the starting point does not lie outside the body. Some writers have mistaken the secondary effects of ectogenous toxins for auto-intoxications. As an illustration of this we may mention the attempt that has been made to classify alcoholic cirrhosis under the head of auto-intoxications. The explanation which has been offered by those who have advocated this classification is that the changes in the liver are not due to the direct action of alcohol, but that as a re- sult of the abuse of this beverage a diseased stomach results, and on account of its diseased condition permits the absorption of imper- fectly digested substances, to the direct action of which the changes in the liver and other organs are to be attributed. According to our way of looking at it, alcoholic cirrhosis is due either directly or indirectly to the action of the toxic substance which is introduced from without, and certainly should not be classed among autogenous diseases. Auto-infection has also been confounded with auto-intoxi- cation. These two processes are wholly distinct, and a clear comprehension of each will prevent confusion. The term auto-infection is properly applied to those cases in which the virus of disease is carried locally in some part of the body, and is distributed from this locality to other parts of the body. Illustrations of auto-infection are numerous in certain diseases, and especially in tuberculosis. An individual with pulmonary tuberculosis swallows his sputum and infects his intestinal walls. Another person may carry for years a colony of tubercle bacilli in his lungs, in his bones, or in some other part ot his anatomy, and then when this individual is exposed to conditions which materially lower his vitality, the bacilli which have been con- fined to a narrow locality, pass beyond the bounds to which they have so far ])een restricted, and invade every tissue, leading to acute miliary tuberculosis. Post-mortem examinations have shown that one-third or more of all men have latent tuberculosis, and this un-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2120505x_0490.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
