278 Microbes and You 



edge— somewhat distorted at times, to be sure— to members of their 

 family and to their acquaintances. Education can initiate a chain 

 reaction whose hmits are almost without bounds. 



It is probable that at least 100,000 persons are victims of food 

 poisoning each year in the United States. Since public health 

 records usually contain only the statistics concerned with mass food 

 poisoning contracted at public functions, it is impossible to state 

 how many outbreaks occur in family units and are never recorded. 

 The great tragedy is the fact that such poisonings are easily 

 avoided by the application of a few fundamental principles of 

 sanitation and common sense. 



Whenever a newspaper prints an account of mass illness from 

 food and attributes the cause to "ptomaine poisoning," you can be 

 certain that the designation is a false one. Ptomaines are products 

 resulting from putrefaction of proteins, and there is evidence that 

 these end products are nontoxic when taken by mouth. Selmi, 

 an Italian toxicologist, introduced the word ptomaine in 1870. It 

 is derived from the Greek word ptoma, meaning corpse. Jordan 

 stated it well when he claimed that the term "ptomaine poisoning" 

 is a convenient refuge for etiologic uncertainty. The unfortunate 

 feature of most food-borne outbreaks is the lack of visible evidence 

 that the food is contaminated or harbors toxins. Putrefaction is 

 rarelv associated with the condition. 



Food poisoning is a general expression which includes both 

 poisoning due to pre-formed toxins in the ingested food, and in- 

 fection of the gastro-intestinal tract by living organisms. Strictly 

 speaking, these two conditions are more correctly designated as 

 food intoxication and food infection, respectively. 



Whether a given food is likely to cause food poisoning depends 

 upon how suitable a medium it happens to be. If all of the 

 prerequisites for a good microbiological medium have been fulfilled 

 with the exception of one, microbial activitv will be slowed down 

 or will actually be prevented. Dry cereals, for example, lack 

 sufficient moisture to allow active bacterial growth. Concentrated 

 sugar syrups are not likely to support active microbial growth 

 because of their high osmotic pressure. Fats do not contain the 



