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Previous Volume 343:820-821 September 14, 2000 Number 11 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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By James C. Whorton. 332 pp., illustrated. New York, Oxford University Press, 2000. $39.95. ISBN 0-19-513581-4.

The subject of this book concerns everyone in one way or another. When nature calls regularly, one should be grateful. But when such calls are irregular and one suffers from headache, distention of the abdomen, disagreeable breath, and furred tongue, then something has to be done. According to 18th-century doctors, retained bile would cause fever, in the 19th century putrefaction and bacterial infection were feared, and now we are frightened by autointoxication and cancer.

The belief that retained feces can poison the body has a long history. A passage in the Ebers papyrus suggests that undigested food produces poisonous substances . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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