Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/143

 medium well supplied with warmth and moisture ; and there are microbes constantly present, capable of utilizing toxic substances, and in their turn producing them. Delay in evacuation gives a time of retention sufficient for further microbic propagation. These conditions exist in the normal colon, and, when frequent action is impeded, as in constipation, they increase to the highest degree of development.

A modern scientist, not a physician, Elie Metchnikoff, recently called attention to the fact that extreme longevity in mankind is directly dependent upon the frequency and copiousness of bowel discharges. This view, taken without qualification, may be regarded as extravagant, but there is good reason for accepting his contention that the primary cause of shortness of life is the pernicious action of poisons absorbed from the colon.

Following the medical plan of annihilating the symptom, Metchnikoff sought and supposedly found that constant use of sour milk placed a limit on intestinal fermentation. The active principle in this fluid is an organism known as the bacillus of lactic acid, which Metchnikoff discovered to be antagonistic to the microbes habitually present in the large