10 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



testimony held that septic poisoning resulted from the use of this water and 

 thus caused abortion, Prof. Williams maintaining that water holding a large 

 amount of vegetable matter is dangerous to pregnant cows, while the defendants 

 held that this would not be a sufficient cause for the action. Judgment was 

 rendered for the plaintiff. 



Bacterial poisons are produced by two classes of bac- 



Bacterial Poisons, teria : the first includes such as are parasitic or pathogenic ; 

 the second, those which form poisonous products by the 



breaking down of dead animal or plant tissues. An illustration of the first 

 class is seen in the products resulting from the tetanus bacillus and diptheria 

 bacillus which produce an extra-cellular toxin. Another type is the toxin known 

 as endo-toxin. In the extra-cellular form, toxin exudes through the bacterial 

 cell-wall and is found in the body; while in the endo-toxin form, the toxin 

 remains wholly, or in part, in the cell during the life of the organism and is 

 liberated only on the death of the bacteria. 



There are on record numerous cases of poisoning as a result of eating 

 certain foods of animal origin, and the same statement may be made in regard 

 to foods of plant origin. Such foods as meats, fish, cheese, and milk, some- 

 times become injurious because of the products of bacterial growth which they 

 contain. These products are classified as either ptomains or toxins ; a third 

 class, the leucomains, result from the breaking down of tissues of the living 

 animal body, being proteid bodies which have been broken down by enzymes, 

 secreted by the cells of the body. These leucomains produce auto-intoxication. 

 Ptomains are soluble, basic substances formed by the action of bacteria on 

 protein material. Dr. Holland illustrates the action as follows : "The amino- 

 acids, ornithin and lysin, constituents of pure protein, subjected to bacterial 

 action, split off CO 2 , and change to putrescin and cadaverin." Some of these 

 products, as methylamin, are harmless, while others are active poisons. The 

 ptomains are strongly basic, combining with acids to form salts. They are 

 precipitated with chlorides of mercury and are of various kinds. Some are 

 free from oxygen, while others contain that element; some, as typhotoxin, 

 tetanin, pyocyanin, are unclassified; several are injurious in foods; some are 

 produced in fresh oysters and mussels. 



Ptomain poisoning. Symptoms : Gastro-enteritis is the most prominent 

 symptom, with depression and nervous disturbances. In most cases, there are, 

 also, marked thirst, salivation, nausea, and vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps in the 

 legs, great prostration, feeble pulse, dilated pupils, delirium, paralysis, and col- 

 lapse. The postmortem examination generally, but not always, shows in- 

 flammation of the stomach and bowels. Cholin, in large doses, nervin, diamin, 

 amanitin, muscarin, all act as poisons; nervin is much more powerful than 

 cholin, the symptoms being those accompanying obstruction of the bowels, to- 

 gether with nausea, pain, and depression; the diamins are all actively poison- 

 ous, dilated pupils, convulsions, diarrhoea, and paralysis being prominent symp- 

 toms. Muscarin, found in Fly Agaric and certain putrid products, is a much 

 more powerful poison than cholin or nervin and produces vomiting, griping 

 pains in the stomach and intestines, slow pulse, arrested action of the heart, 

 contraction of the pupils and fatal collapse. 



Toxins. These are poisonous bases produced by living bacteria or by 

 saprophytic bacteria in the animal body and in higher plants. 



Holland arranges the food toxins in two classes: (1) The poisonous 



