628 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Habitat of B. hoiuUnus. — A brief review of the various places where B. 

 hotulinus has been found should be of interest in this connection. Burke of 

 California has done considerable work in attempting to locate in what types 

 of material this bacillus may be found. She concludes that this organism is 

 widely distributed in nature ; that it seems to occur in the vicinity of the hab- 

 itations of man ; that it may be present in the garden and thus be on the fruits 

 or vegetables when picked, whether they are decayed or sound; that spiders 

 or small insects may aid in distributing this organism in the garden; that it 

 may be harbored in the intestinal tract of an animal for at least four months 

 after contaminated food is eaten. Van Ermengen (1895) never succeeded 

 in finding the bacillus in anything except two speciments of ham which had 

 caused poisoning in humans, although he searched for it in various kinds of 

 soils and manures, mud from ponds and rivers, and the like. Kempner and 

 Pollack (1897) found B. hotulinus in the intestinal contents of a "normal" 

 hog. This was the only recorded case of the isolation of B. botulinus from 

 nature until Burke's findings. 



Boiling Food Destroys Toxin but Not Spores. — Along with preventive 

 measures one which has been given most publicity within the last two years 

 is that boiling any food suspected of containing the toxin of B. botulinus de- 

 stroys the toxin if present and thus entirely prevents the likelihood of botu- 

 lism ever occurring from the eating of this particular food. A very recent 

 publication from the Bureau of Chemistry, however, indicates very strongly 

 that, if B. hotulinus is present in any food, the short heating given it to de- 

 stroy the toxin is 7iot sufficient to kill the spores, and if a large enough num- 

 ber of the spores of this bacillus is present in the food, botulism may result 

 just the same, the symptoms only being delayed, due to the time it would 

 take for the spores to germinate and for a sufficient number of bacterial cells 

 and consequently toxin to form. Tliis was proved to be the case with ex- 

 perimental animals. Botulinus toxin is now known to be produced at body 

 temperature as well as at lower temperature, contrary to the belief of a few 

 years ago. 



Don't Heat and Eat Spoiled Food, Destroy It. — As the above statement 

 from the Bureau of Chemistry seems to have adequate experimental proof 

 it seems very um\ise to continue to recommend that food which seems a 

 little ' 'off' ' may be safely eaten when heated. Rather it seems best to ad- 

 vocate the destruction of such food by burning, and not merely getting rid 

 of it by feeding it to chickens or pigs, or even by burying it. 



The Question of Odor. — A word may not be amiss here with regard to 

 whether or not there may be an offensive odor present in food containing 

 B. hotulinus. Sufficient observations and experiments have been made to 

 enable the statement to be made that not in all cases has the food (human 

 or stock) had an offensive odor when this germ and its toxin were found to 

 be present. In fact, authorities disagree at present as to whether the germ 

 of botulism ever causes the production of a disagreeable odor in foods. The 

 fact remains, however, that many of the foods which have proved to be toxic 

 and to contain this bacillus have had a more or less definitely offensive odor. 



Train the Ej^e to Detect Spoilage. — The nose alone should not be relied 

 on to detect spoilage. The eye can detect spoilage in canned goods. For 

 instance, a tin can may have one or both heads swelled; a glass can may 

 have a bulged lid, or may show signs of leakage, of gas bubbles in the can, 

 of a light colored sediment, of disintegration of the food product, and upon 



