[3] POISONING BY RED CODFISH. 1021) 



Tlic first were digestive troubles, consisting at first in a feeling of dry- 

 ness in the mouth and throat, which most of the patients considered 

 as an excessive thirst, while some considered it as the sharp after-taste 

 of their dinner, which they hoped to overcome by drinking copiously. 

 But soon, no matter whether they drank anything or not, they had a 

 feeling of heaviness in the stomach, and a disagreeable bloated feeling, 

 which very soon, however, turned to a severe stomachache. In the 

 evening more than half the men were on their feet again, and on the 

 following day most of them did not feel any traces of this slight indis- 

 position." 



(2) Case reported by Dr. Hermann, of St. Petersburg, in 1878. 



In 1878, 108 persons at St. Petersburg were poisoned by eating the 

 salt and dried cod called " stock-fisch," which forms a common article 

 of food in Russia. Dr. Hermann treated four of the worst cases. One 

 of them, forty-four years of age, died after twenty-four hours; and the 

 autopsy showed a hemorrhagic injection of the ileum and the larger in- 

 testines. The symptoms in all cases were faintness. stupor, violent 

 colic, diarrhea, vomitiug, cramps in the lower extremities; pulse weak, 

 a little quicker than usual; stomach elastic, no sensation of pain when 

 pressed. 



In most cases convalescence was reached on the third day; in one 

 case the diarrhea lasted longer than two days. The codfish which had 

 produced these cases had a bad taste and odor; and a sample exam- 

 ined under the microscope showed that the muscular tissue had become 

 granulous and brittle; while the streaks of the muscular fiber were no 

 longer apparent. The codfish had a deep yellow color. 



(.'3) Case in a regiment of the Foreign Legion, at iSidi-Bel-Abbes, in 1878. 



Dr. Schaumont has published in the Eecueil de memoires de Chirur- 

 gie et de Pharmacie militaires (vol. for 1878, p. 504), a report on a case 

 of poisoning of the same kind, showing extremely grave symptoms. 



The case occurred in the night of April 19, 1878, in a company of the 

 Foreign Legion stationed at Sidi-Bel-Abbes, province of Oran, Algiers. 

 At 9 p. m. the physician was informed that 20 men had been taken with 

 violent colic, diarrhea, and vomiting. At 11 p. m. the number of pa- 

 tients had increased to G4, and the condition of those who had been 

 taken first became more and more serious. An hour later the number 

 of patients had reached 80. In all, 122 men were sick, 17 of whom had 

 to be sent to the hospital. 



"All complained at first of vertigo, headache, and nausea; the face 

 became livid; then followed cramps in the stomach, and vomiting of 

 food matter, and finally frequent and violent attacks of diarrhea. At 

 last the lower extremities began to grow cold, and cramps were felt in 

 the calves." 



