Formation of wrinkles; thin, inelastic, starchy skin; pigmentations of the skin - yellow, brown, slate-black, blue; muddy complexion; offensive secretion from the skin of flexures; thickening of the skin; sores and boils; pemphigus, pruritus; herpes; eczema; dermatitis; lupus erythematosus; acne rosacea; cold clammy extremities; dark circles under the eyes; seborrhea; psoriasis; alopecia, lichen; planus, jaundice.

MUSCLES AND JOINTS

Degeneration of the muscles leading to dorsal excurvation, round shoulders, lateral curvature, flat-feet, and knock-knees; weakness of abdominal muscles causing accumulation of feces in the pelvic colon, which renders evacuation of contents more and more difficult; prominence of bones; rheumatic pains simulating sciatica and lumbago; various muscular pains; muscular rheumatism; arthritis deformities; synovitis; rickets; arthritis-acute, chronic, tubercle, and rheumatoid.

GENITO-URINARY AND REPRODUCTION ORGANS

Various displacements; distortion and disease of the uterus; change in the whole form and contour of a woman; fibrosis of breast; wasting of breasts; induration of breasts; sub-acute and chronic mastitis; cancer of breasts; merritus and endometriois; infection of bladder especially in women; frequent urination; albumsosuria; acute nephritis; movable kidney; floating kidney.

GENERAL DISORDERS AND DISTURBANCES OF NUTRITION

Degeneration of the organs of elimination, especially the liver, kidneys (Bright’s disease) and spleen; pernicious anemia; lowered resistance to infection of all kinds; premature senile decay; retardation of growth in children, accompanied by mental irritability and muscular fatigue; adenoids, enlarged tonsils; scurvy; enlarged thyroid (goiter); various tumours and thyroid; Raynaud’s disease.

In those who apparently suffer no harm from constipation during a long series of years there is perhaps, as suggested by Hertz, a partial immunity established. The writer has long believed that such an immunity is sometimes established in the very obstinate constipation that accompanies absolute fasting, because of the cleansing of the tongue and reappearance of appetite which often occurs at the end of the second or third week of the fast - a phenomenon very like that which appears in typhoid fever and other continued fevers.

It must not be supposed, however, that even the establishment of so-called immunity insures the body against all injury. The labour of eliminating an enormous amount of virulent toxins, which falls upon the kidneys, damages the renal tissues and produces premature failure of these essential organs. Any process that develops toxins within the body is a menace to the life of the tissues and should be suppressed as far as possible, and as quickly as possible.

The fact that symptoms of poisoning resulting from constipation do not appear at once is no evidence that injury is not done. Dr. William Hunter, in the course of the London discussion, remarked that the fact that chronic constipation “might exist in certain individuals as an almost permanent condition without apparently causing ill health is due solely to the power and protective action of the liver. It is not any evidence of the comparative harmlessness of constipation per se, but only an evidence that the individual possesses the cecum and the colon of an ox, with liver of a pig, capable of doing any amount of detoxification.”

In the face of such an array of evidence supported by the authority of nearly sixty eminent English physicians - and many hundreds of other English, American, German and French physicians whose names might be added - it is no longer possible to ignore the importance of alimentary toxemia or autointoxication as a fact in the production of disease. To no other single cause is it possible to attribute one-tenth as many various and widely diverse disorders. It may be said that almost every chronic disease known is directly or indirectly due to the influence of bacterial poisons absorbed from the intestine. The colon may be justly looked upon as a veritable Pandora’s box, out of which come more human misery and suffering, mental and moral, as well as physical, than from any other known source. 

The colon is a sewage system, but by neglect and abuse, it becomes a cesspool. When it is clean and normal we are well and happy. Let it stagnate and it will distil the poisons of decay, fermentation, and putrefaction into the blood, thereby poisoning the brain and nervous system so that we become mentally depressed and irritable; poisoning the heart so that we are weak and listless; poisoning the lungs so that our breath is foul; poisoning the digestive organs so that we are distressed and bloated; and poisoning the blood so that skin becomes sallow and unhealthy. In short, every organ of the body is poisoned, causing us to look and feel old, with stiff and painful joints, dull eyes, a sluggish brain, and little pleasure left in living.