38 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



mortem examination in these showed no abnormality. The 

 stomach contained some of the food partially digested. 



The explorer VANCOUVER reports four cases similar to 

 those observed by COMBE. One of the sailors died in five 

 and a half hours after eating the mussels. 



In some recent cases reported by SCHMIDTMANN, as 

 quoted by BRIEGER, the symptoms were as follows : Some 

 dock hands and their families ate of cooked blue mussels 

 which had been taken near a newly built dock. The 

 symptoms appeared, according to the amount eaten, from 

 soon after eating to several hours later. There was a sen- 

 sation of constriction in the throat, mouth, and lips ; the 

 teeth were set on edge, as though sour apples had been 

 eaten. There was dizziness, no headache ; a sensation of 

 flying, and an intoxication similar to that produced by 

 alcohol. The pulse was hard, rapid (eighty to ninety), no 

 elevation of temperature, the pupils dilated and reaction- 

 less. Speech was difficult, broken, and jerky. The limbs 

 felt heavy ; the hands grasped spasmodically at objects and 

 missed their aim. The legs were no longer able to support 

 the body, and the knees knocked together. There was 

 nausea, vomiting, no abdominal pain, no diarrhoea. The 

 hands became numb and the feet cold. The sensation of 

 cold soon extended over the entire body, and in some the 

 perspiration flowed freely. There was a feeling of suffoca- 

 tion, then a restful and dreamless sleep. One person died 

 in one and three-quarters of an hour, another in three and 

 one-half hours, and a third in five hours, after eating of 

 the mussels. 



In one of these fatal cases rigor mortis was marked and 

 remained for twenty-four hours. The vessels of all the 

 organs were distended, only the heart was empty. ViR- 

 CHOW concluded from the conditions observed that the 

 blood had absorbed oxygen with great avidity. There was 

 marked hyperiemia and swelling of the mucous membrane 

 of the stomach and intestines, which VIRCHOW pronounced 

 an enteritis. The spleen was enormously enlarged and the 

 liver showed numerous hemorrhagic infarctions. 



Many theories have been advanced to account for poison- 



