Normal Bacterial Populations of the Intestine and Their Relation to Intestinal Function

IN the latter part of the nineteenth century discovery of the bacterial basis for many diseases, together with dramatic demonstrations of the potency of bacterial toxins, led to the concept of intestinal autointoxication. Vociferously championed by Metchnikoff,1 this theory held that noxious intestinal bacterial products were absorbed and were the cause of many of man's afflictions. Although widely accepted at first, the autointoxication concept received little or no support in the form of sound experimental data and was soon exploited by quacks and faddists. Indeed, scientific reaction against the theory may well have impeded subsequent objective investigation into the physiologic . . .