Autointoxication; or, Intestinal Toxemia

book · 1919

type:book

year:1919

citation:Kellogg JH. *Autointoxication; or, Intestinal Toxemia*. Battle Creek, Mich.: The Modern Medicine Publishing Co.; 1919. Internet Archive: autointoxicatio01kellgoog.

LINK

https://archive.org/details/autointoxicatio01kellgoog

SUMMARY

John Harvey Kellogg's book-length statement of the intestinal-autointoxication theory, the mechanistic premise of the Battle Creek regimen. Kellogg argues that the colon's putrefactive flora generate toxins that are absorbed into the body and underlie a long list of chronic disorders, and that the condition is correctable by diet and colon hygiene. The 1919 Modern Medicine Publishing Co. edition is the printing cited by Mathias (2018) as the bestselling vehicle through which Kellogg popularized the theory. Used in this case as the primary source for Kellogg's own framing of autointoxication as a near-universal, life-shortening malady sourced in the colon. The book is a period author's text, not a controlled study; it is cited for what Kellogg claimed, not as evidence the claims were true.

NOTES

Autointoxication; or, Intestinal Toxemia (Battle Creek, Mich.: The Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 1919) is Kellogg’s principal published statement of the theory on which his longevity regimen rested. In it he frames the colon’s putrefying residues as the source of a self-poisoning that drives chronic disease, and presents the Battle Creek methods (antitoxic vegetarian diet, bowel regularity, colon hygiene) as the remedy. The book is held by the Internet Archive (identifier autointoxicatio01kellgoog); a Wellcome-digitized copy of the same 1919 edition carries the catalog record b29812768, and a 1918 printing also exists. The case cites the 1919 edition for consistency with the secondary literature (Mathias 2018), which identifies the 1919 book as the popularizing text. No DOI or PMID applies; the source is cited by its archive record and catalog metadata.