462 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY. 



could be slaughtered. Most often they suffer from 

 septic inflammatory processes or from traumatic, 

 puerperal or other sorts of septicemia, or from 

 other ill-defined pathologic conditions which are 

 accompanied by symptoms of enteritis or intestinal 

 or pulmonary inflammations" (v. Ermengem). 

 Subsequent infection of the meat by Bacillus en- 

 teritidis, i. e., after slaughtering, has not been 

 noted. 



G ie V Mea? ^ke or g an i sm occurs in the blood and various 

 organs of infected animals and man. Poisoning 

 most commonly arises when the meat has been 

 kept for several days, which usually is the case by 

 the time it is made into some form of sausage. In 

 the meantime the bacilli have proliferated and ad- 

 ditional toxin has been produced. In at least one 

 instance a certain number of patients who ate the 

 meat while it was fresh suffered moderate or no 

 intoxication, whereas those who ate it several days 

 later became violently ill. In an epidemic caused 

 by horse meat Drigalski found that "only those 

 persons suffered from intoxication who ate the 

 meat after it had lain for eight days or more." 

 Toxin in The micro-organism is very resistant to heat 

 neat. an( j ^ e temperature which is attained in ordinary 

 cooking may not be sufficient to kill the bacteria 

 which are remote from the surface. Even in the 

 event that the meat has been thoroughly sterilized, 

 the heat-resistant toxin may be present in suffi- 

 cient quantity to cause the intoxication. Not 

 much is known concerning the distribution of 

 Bacillus enteritidis. v. Ermengem suspects that 

 it may be a factor in poisoning by oysters and fish, 

 but this remains undetermined. 



