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the result of albuminous or proteid decomposition or putrefaction, 

 certain animal alkaloids are produced, similar in their nature and 

 in their chemical composition to the vegetable alkaloids. Some of 

 these products, or ptomaines as they are called, are innocuous, 

 others possess poisonous properties varying in degree from the 

 slighter forms to the most intense activity. Nearly 70 yeai-s 

 ago Kerner pointed out the similarity of the effects produced 

 by sausage-poison to those produced by atropine, but the symptoms 

 are slower in appearing — sometimes two, three, or four days may 

 elapse before they manifest themselves. Dr Alfred Swaine 

 Taylor mentions the fact that in 1859 sixty-four persons suffered 

 from the poisonous effects of a certain batch of sausages, only 

 one case however proving fatal. Chemical analysis of the sausages 

 yielded nothing of a poisonous nature, though there could be no 

 doubt that they had caused the symptoms and death. The 

 symptoms were — burning in the throat and stomach, followed 

 by vomiting and purging; giddiness and confusion in the head, 

 and in some cases delirium. 



It might now possibly be urged, with our present knowledge, 

 that the symptoms arose from the formation of an animal alkaloid 

 in the meat, developed through the agency of such an organism 

 as Cohn's bacterium termo or Bienstock's drumstick bacillus. 



From partial decay, through the agency of Tyrothrix tenuis 

 or some other bacterium, cheese sometimes acquires irritant pro- 

 perties and will give rise to vomiting and purging more or less 

 violent in those who have eaten it. 



Pickled or tinned salmon, salted herrings and even fresh 

 mussels, are examples of articles of diet which have caused poioonous 

 symptoms in those who have partaken of them. 



In 1856 Panum showed that these effects were the result of 

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