400 BACTERIA AND FOOD-POISONING 



change of residence so that he can notify the State Board of Health 

 and obtain its approval. 



"5. I will submit specimens for examination when requested by 

 the State Board of Health. 



"6. I will fill out the following report blank when submitted to me 

 semi-annually, and return the same to the California State Board 

 of Health: 



' I have, during the last six months, complied to the best of my 

 knowledge with the five separate agreements entered into between 

 myself and the California State Board of Health. Precautions 

 involved in these separate agreements are for the purpose of prevent- 

 ing typhoid infection.' ' 



Ptomain Poisoning. Plant and animal tissues under appropriate 

 temperature, moisture, and aeration putrefy. The proteins are 

 broken down with the formation of basic, often highly toxic, sub- 

 stances spoken of as "animal alkaloids" or ptomains. These 

 compounds are not poisonous in every case. The presence of oxygen 

 in the compound seems to be necessary for the development of strong 

 toxicity. In putrefying mixtures these toxic bodies appear on or 

 about the fifth to seventh day after putrefaction sets in and disappear 

 through further cleavage more or less rapidly yielding less complex 

 nitrogenous substances that are non-toxic. It was formerly thought 

 that they played a very important part in food-poisoning. But 

 recent work has indicated that they are seldom the causative agent. 

 \ aughan and Navy, who have made an extensive study of ptomains, 

 have proposed a very elaborate nomenclature for supposed food- 

 poisoning due to their ingestion. Some of them are as follows: 



Cheese-poisoning . . . , . Tyrotoxismus 



Fish-poisoning . . . ' .. . . . ' . .... Ichthyotoxismus 



Food-poisoning. . . . ...... . . Bromototoxismus 



Meat-poisoning . . . ..... . . . Kreatoxismus 



Milk-poisoning Galactotoxismus 



Botulism. Botulism results from the eating of food in which the 

 Bacillmbotulinus has grown and elaborated a poison. The organism 

 is a large bacillus 4 to 6/i by 0.9 to 1.2/*, having slightly rounded ends 

 and they may arrange themselves in pairs, end to end, or in an 

 unfavorable environment in long chains. It is a strict anaerobe, but 

 may grow under imperfect anaerobic conditions if in symbiosis with 

 certain aerobic bacteria. The optimum temperature for the growth 

 of the bacillus and for the elaboration of the poison is between 20 

 and 30 C. The vegetative cells are easily destroyed by heat, but 

 the spores are quite resistant (according to Van Ermengen, 85 C. 

 for fifteen minutes), but Dickson considers them even more resistant. 

 Thorn and associates isolated strains from asparagus which survived 

 steaming under 10 pounds' pressure for fifteen minutes, or a tempera- 

 ture of 100 C. for one hour. They remain visable, according to 



