POISONING BY FUNGI, BACTERIA AND THEIR 

 PRODUCTS IN FOOD. 



Poisons in spoiled food : Moulds, rust, smut, bacteria, toxins. Action of 

 moulds on rabbits, on alimentary and nervous systems. Smuts, ergots and 

 their congeners. Tetanizing and paralyzing products. Duration of symp- 

 toms. 



Food is ustially spoiled by the growth of motilds, rust, smut, 

 bacteria aud the toxins which they produce. 



Kaufman has experimented with motrlds on rabbits. He found 

 that aspergillus glaucus (green mould) grown on bread pro- 

 duces a fatal infection in the rabbit even in very minute do.ses 

 (j-^ milligramme); that it will attain this in a neutral or even 

 slightly acid medium as well as in an alkaline one ; and that the 

 spores retain this pathogenic activit)' for six months at ordinary 

 temperatures. The aspergillus glaucus, penicillium glaucum, and 

 mucor mucedo affect the intestinal organs only, while ascophora 

 oidium aurantiacum affect the nervous system as well. The 

 smuts (ustilago) and ergots (claviceps purpurea) vary consider- 

 ably in their potency according to the conditions of their growth 

 and the stage of their development, yet experiment has shown a 

 special action on the va.somotor nerves leading to nervous dis- 

 orders, circulatory troubles, and trophic disease. In connection 

 with ustilago maidis (corn smut) there are usually found 

 bacteria, such as bacillus maidis and bacillus mesentericus 

 fuscus, and the combined products of these and the ustilago have 

 been studied by Eombroso, Dupre and Erba. The.se observers 

 isolated a red oil with the tetanizing action of strychnia, and 

 oleo-resinous substances having bases which they named maisine 

 and pellagrozeiue, and which had a paralytic action on the nerve 

 centres. Pellizi and Tirelli cultivated the bacteria of damaged 

 maize and found that the sterilized cultures, introduced into rab- 

 bits hypodermicall}' or intravenously caused muscular jerking, 

 exaggeration of the reflexes, tetanic .spasms and paralysis which 

 lasted for fifteen days after the injection. This is exactly in line 

 with the causation of contagious bacteridian diseases in which 

 the ptomaines and toxins are, as a rule, the immediate pathogenic 

 factors. 



19 289 



