There is only one cause of disease, the retention of waste matters in the system (intestinal autointoxication); clearing the colon therefore removes the cause of disease and restores and preserves health.
This is the mechanistic premise on which the J.B.L. Cascade was sold. Tyrrell stated it in The Royal Road to Health (1894): ‘there is only one disease, although its manifestations are various, and there is only one cause for it, and that is the retention of waste matters in the system.’ From this single-cause doctrine it followed that flushing the colon would remove the cause of disease and preserve health. The claim is classified as refuted. The enabling theory of intestinal autointoxication was rejected in the early 20th century: Walter C. Alvarez argued in 1919 (JAMA) that putrefactive products are not absorbed from the bowel in the harmful quantities the theory required, and later historical and clinical reviews treat autointoxication and the colonic-irrigation practices built on it as discredited (Sullivan-Fowler 1995; Ernst 1997, who names Tyrrell an exemplary proponent). The single-cause framing has no basis in modern physiology.
Appears in
Sources
- The Royal Road to Health, or, The Secret of Health Without Drugs — Tyrrell, Charles Alfred. *The Royal Road to Health, or, The Secret of Health Without Drugs*. New York: Tyrrell's Hygienic Institute. First published 1894; reissued through many editions. Full text via Project Gutenberg (ebook #3453); a 1920 printing of the c1907 edition is digitized at the Internet Archive (royalroadtohealt00tyrriala).
- Origin of the So-Called Auto-Intoxication Symptoms — Alvarez, Walter C. 'Origin of the So-Called Auto-Intoxication Symptoms.' *Journal of the American Medical Association* 1919;72(1):8-13. doi:10.1001/jama.1919.02610010014002.
- Colonic Irrigation and the Theory of Autointoxication: A Triumph of Ignorance over Science — Ernst, E. 'Colonic Irrigation and the Theory of Autointoxication: A Triumph of Ignorance over Science.' *Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology* 1997;24(4):196-198. doi:10.1097/00004836-199706000-00002. PubMed: 9252839.
- Doubtful Theories, Drastic Therapies: Autointoxication and Faddism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries — Sullivan-Fowler, M. 'Doubtful Theories, Drastic Therapies: Autointoxication and Faddism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.' *Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences* 1995;50(3):364-390. doi:10.1093/jhmas/50.3.364. PubMed: 7665877.