42 BACTERIAL I'OISONS. 



SAUSAGE POISONING. This is also known as botulis- 

 mus and allantiasis. While considerable diversity has 

 been observed in symptoms of sausage poisoning, we can- 

 not divide the cases into classes from their symptoma- 

 tology as has been done in mussel poisoning. The first 

 effects may manifest themselves at any time from one hour 

 to twenty-four hours after eating of the sausage, and cases 

 are recorded in which it is stated, no symptoms appeared 

 until several days had passed. However, we must re- 

 member that trichinosis was frequently, in former times, 

 classed as sausage poisoning, and it is highly probable that 

 these cases of long delay in the appearance of the symp- 

 toms were really not due to putrefaction, but to the pres- 

 ence of parasites in the meat. A large majority of the one 

 hundred and twenty-four cases more recently reported by 

 MULLER sickened within twenty-four hours, and out of 

 the forty-eight of these which were fatal, six died within 

 the first twenty-four hours. At first there is dryness of 

 the mouth, constriction of the throat, uneasiness in the 

 stomach, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, indistinctness of vision, 

 dilatation of the pupils, difficulty in swallowing, and 

 usually diarrhoea, though obstinate constipation may exist 

 from the first. There is, as a rule, a sensation of suffoca- 

 tion, and the breathing becomes labored. The pulse is 

 small, thready, and rapid. In some cases the radial pulse 

 may be imperceptible. Marked nervous prostration and 

 muscular debility follow. These symptoms vary greatly 

 in prominence in individual cases. The rechting and vom- 

 iting, which may be most distressing and persistent in 

 some instances, in others are trivial at the beginning and 

 soon cease altogether. The same is true of the diarrhoea. 

 As a rule, the functions of the brain proceed normally, but 

 there may be delirium, then coma and death. In some 

 there are marked convulsive movements, especially of the 

 limbs, in others paralysis may be an early and marked 

 symptom. The pupils may dilate, then become normal 

 and again dilate. There is frequently ptosis, and paralysis 

 of the muscles of accommodation is not rare. Complete 

 blindness has followed in a few instances. 



