360 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



a favorable effect. A ptomain is defined as a bacterial 

 product derived from nitrogenous food. It is usually 

 assumed to be rather simple in its chemical nature and 

 has been described as an animal alkaloid. This is not 

 a good term for we can probably obtain the same 

 ptomains from vegetable proteins as from those of meat. 

 The word ptomain need not of necessity suggest a poison, 

 but it is usually so understood for, among many com- 

 pounds released simultaneously in certain types of de- 

 composition, there are some which are intensely toxic. 



Meat and fish, including shellfish, have figured in 

 most of the spectacular cases. A number of persons 

 who have eaten food from a common source, it may be 

 at a banquet, have become violently ill. A few hours 

 after the meal they are seized with agonizing pangs, 

 uncontrollable diarrhea, and, in most instances, forcible 

 vomiting. The temperature rises to a fever pitch, there 

 is extreme prostration, and death from exhaustion may 

 occur. But the reaction of the system evidently favors 

 a thorough removal of the poison and recovery is usually 

 prompt. 



There are odd cases of food poisoning which present 

 an entirely different group of symptoms : a painless pros- 

 tration, with more or less paralysis, and stupor. The 

 poisons which produce such effects must be of a narcotic 

 nature. The outlook is worse under these conditions 

 than in the ordinary disturbance for it is most difficult 

 to clear the sluggish and benumbed system of the agent 

 that is threatening its life. Poisoning by decomposed 

 mussels, molluscs eaten in Germany, has often had this 

 narcotic character, and so has the sausage poisoning 

 which has been recorded in the same country. 



There is no apparent reason why other nitrogenous 

 foods than meat should not undergo poisonous decom- 

 position. In fact we have reports of sickness due to 

 string beans which had been imperfectly preserved in 

 glass. There is widespread objection to canned goods, 

 but it does not appear that they have been responsible 



