3 o 4 PHENOMENA OF PUTREFACTION. 



body (diazobenzene ?). It is formed (under conditions still un- 

 investigated) in stored cheese by the action of bacteria, and when 

 eaten in such cheese produces symptoms of violent poisoning. A 

 case of this kind, in which tifty persons were simultaneously 

 attacked, is recorded by Sen. WALLACE (I.). The same poison is 

 also occasionally formed in milk. Thus, VAUGHAN (II.) reported 

 an instance of eighteen persons being rendered ill by eating 

 vanilla ice, from which substance (chiefly composed of milk) 

 crystals of tyrotoxicon were obtained. L. DOKKUM (I.) extracted 

 from a cheese recognised as dangerous to health a ptomaine-like 

 substance which he termed tyrotoxin, but which is not identical 

 with tyrotoxicon. In America such cases of cheese-poisoning are 

 more frequent than in Europe, Vaughan having enumerated three 

 hundred within two years. 



It is not essentially necessary that the food should contain 

 ready-formed ptomaines for symptoms of poisoning to appear. On 

 the contrary, the ptomaines may be formed in the body itself if 

 the food contain bacteria capable of producing them, and provided 

 that the composition of the substances present in the intestines is 

 favourable at the moment. In such event the poisons are called 

 leucomaines, and most of the cases of so-called meat-poisoning 

 are due to this cause. Thus A. GARTNER (I.) reported a case 

 wherein he succeeded in identifying a fission fungus, Bacillus 

 enteritidis, as the cause of the poison, and the same microbe was 

 discovered by J. KARLINSKI (II.) in a case of meat-poisoning in 

 Herzegovina, where sun-dried meat ("suche mieso") is an ordinary 

 article of trade, and is frequently eaten raw by the natives. Many 

 of the cases of so-called fish-poisoning, i.e. illness produced by 

 eating fish, also belong to this category. On the other hand, these 

 ill effects may also be brought about by ptomaines produced during 

 the storage of this (readily decomposable) food-stuff, a remark which 

 applies equally to the so-called sausage-poisoning. Researches on 

 this point have been conducted by H. MAAS (L). The poisonous 

 decomposition products developed by the activity of fission fungi 

 in eggs, and also cases of poisoning ensuing from the consumption 

 of eggs so spoiled, have been investigated by GLASMACHER (I.), 

 BONHOFF (II.), and GRIGORIEW (L). 



172. The Albuminous Poisons. 



To attribute the poisonous effects of bacteria, in all cases, to 

 the formation of products of the ptomaine group would be incorrect. 

 As a matter of fact, the injury is frequently caused, not by these 

 alkaloids at all, but by certain true albuminoids, which, on account 

 of their decomposing power, have been named active albumin. 

 We have to thank CHRISTMAS and HANKIN (I.) for the first proof of 

 this fact, though Pfliiger was cognisant of it as long ago as 1875. 

 We have already stated in 82 that certain pathogenic fission 



