746 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



number of other cases have occurred in California and the rest of 

 the United States, many of which have been studied by Dickson 

 and his associates, most of them originating from canned corn and 

 string beans. Thorn, Edmonson and Giltner, reported an outbreak 

 occurred in 1919, traceable to canned asparagus. 



Armstrong 59 carefully studied an outbreak in 1919 which was 

 traced to ripe olives. It is impossible in this space to do justice 

 to the large and valuable botulismus literature which has developed 

 during the last few years, since the studies of Dickson and others 

 have renewed the interest of laboratory workers in the disease. 

 The mortality of the disease has been high, and for the United States 

 generally, as stated by Dickson, it has been over 64 per cent. 



Attention has also been recently called to the relationship of 

 botulismus in man to the disease called limber neck in chickens. 

 In Hillsboro, Oregon, Dickson states 60 that fifty chickens came down 

 after eating home-canned corn which had caused the death of a 

 woman who tasted it. In Hornbrook, California, between fifty and 

 one hundred chickens became paralyzed and died at the same time 

 as the woman who cared for them died of "bulbar paralysis." In 

 the San Jose district, eight chickens died after eating home-canned 

 string beans which had caused the death of a woman; and seven 

 chickens died in Fallbrook, California, after eating home-canned 

 apricots which had killed five people. Dickson obtained the carcasses 

 of some of the chickens of the San Jose and Hillsboro outbreaks, 

 and from the gizzard of one of those which had eaten the canned 

 corn and from the crop of three which had eaten canned beans, he 

 obtained B. Botulinus. He also succeeded in producing symptoms 

 by feeding chickens with the infected material obtained in this way. 

 He described the symptoms as follows: The chickens refuse to eat, 

 remaining quiet, and gradually develop weakness of the neck, wings 

 and legs, finally drooping completely. In the experimental cases 

 death occurred within twenty-four hours after feeding. This, apart 

 from its diagnostic value and experimental importance, may have 

 considerable bearing on epidemiological studies; and limber neck in 

 chickens should always be inquired into when human cases are 

 observed or suspected. 



Clinical Manifestations of Botulismus. Botulismus is character- 

 istic in its clinical manifestations and should not present great 



59 Armstrong, Pub. Health Reports, 1919, 54, December. 



60 Dickson, Jour. Amer. Vet. Assoc., January, 1917. 



