444 THE BACTERIA OF FOOD POISONING 



sive biochemical and immunological comparisons of cultures taken at the face value 

 of the names with which they were labeled. If a culture was labeled B. suipestijer, 

 the characteristics it exhibited were assumed to be those of the organism commonly- 

 found in hog cholera. Studies restricted to cultures of known history have cleared up 

 much of the confusion. Two members of the group, B. paratyphosus A {Salmonella 

 paratyphi) and B. paratyphosus B {Salmonella schoitmiilleri), are human pathogens 

 biologically akin to the typhoid bacillus, and the infections to which they give rise 

 are communicated chiefly, if not solely, by human agency. They are distinct from 

 those paratyphoid strains ordinarily isolated from outbreaks of food poisoning which 

 belong for the most part to two other and distinct species, B. enteritidis {Salmonella 

 enter itidis) and B. aertrycke {Salmonella aertrycke). These two forms are par excellence 

 the food poisoning bacteria of the paratyphoid group. They can today be quite 

 readily distinguished from other members of the group and from each other by 

 cultural as well as immunological tests. ^ 



B. enteritidis was first isolated by Gartner in 1888 in the classical meat-poisoning 

 outbreak at Frankenhausen.^ In this instance the source of infection was meat from 

 a cow slaughtered because the animal was ill from enteritis. One man who ate 800 

 gm. of raw meat developed gastro-intestinal symptoms in two hours and died within 

 thirty-sk hours after partaking of the fatal meal. On necropsy specific bacilli were 

 isolated from the spleen. Bacteria apparently identical with Gartner's bacillus have 

 been isolated in other outbreaks of food poisoning. The bacilli found by van Er- 

 mengem in the Belgian Moorselle and Ghent epidemics, and by Fischer in the Rum- 

 fleth and Haustedt epidemics, are generally placed with the B. enteritidis type.^ Un- 

 fortunately, the term "Gartner bacillus" came to be used by some writers (e.g., W. G. 

 Savage, Food Poisoning ajid Food Infections. Cambridge, England, 1920) as a general 

 term synonymous with "paratyphoid bacillus," so that specific identity cannot be 

 inferred from statements regarding findings of Gartner bacilli. The specific character 

 of B. enteritidis, however, is recognized in most recent publications. In one of the 

 more extensive tabulations of outbreaks of food poisoning^ B. enteritidis is recorded 

 as found in one instance in milk supposed to be the vehicle of infection; in two other 

 instances positive agglutinative reactions for B. enteritidis were noted in affected 

 persons, the suspected vehicles of infection being, respectively, brawn and a "Cornish 

 pasty" containing sausage meat; in a fourth instance there was considered to be 

 "some evidence of B. enteritidis toxin" in a frozen oxtail from the Argentine suspected 

 of causing illness in two persons in London. My own collection of cultures contains 

 three strains of B. enteritidis isolated from definite outbreaks of food poisoning: one 

 from an outbreak due to beef stew,^ one from an outbreak attributed to a food- 

 handler,'' and one apparently derived from a commercial rat virus.' Infections in a 



'Jordan, E. O.: loc. cit.; ibid., 33, 567. 1923; 36, 309. 1925. 

 = Gartner, W.: Corr.-Bl. d. allg. tirtz. Ver. v. Thuringen. 1888. 

 ^Hiibener, E.: Fleischvergiflnngen iind Paratyphusinfektionen, p. 204. Jena, 1910. 

 -I Savage, W. G., and White, B.: Food Poisoning: A Study of 100 Recent Outbreaks {Med. Res. 

 Conn., Spec. Rep. Series No. gz. 1925. 



sMcWeeney, E. J.: Brit. M. J., i, 11 71. 1909. 



* Savage, W. G., and Forbes, D.: /. Ilyg., 17, 460. 1918. 



7 Spray, R. S.: J. A.M. A., 86, 109. 1926. 



