50 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, thirst, headache, and muscular 

 weakness ; any one or two of which might be absent." 



The cause of this illness was traced conclusively to the 

 hams eaten. KLEIN found in the meat a bacillus, cultures 

 of which were used for inoculating animals. These inocu- 

 lations were found generally to be followed by pneumonia. 

 No attempt was made to isolate a ptomaine. 



Later, BALLARD reported fifteen cases with symptoms 

 similar to the above, and with one death, from eating baked 

 pork. Not all of those who ate of this pork were made 

 sick. This might have been due to inequality in the putre- 

 factive changes in different portions of the meat, or it may 

 have been due to differences in temperature in various por- 

 tions of the meat during the cooking. In the blood, peri- 

 cardial fluid, and lungs of the fatal case, KLEIN observed 

 bacilli similar to those discovered in the Wellbeck inquiry. 

 Pneumonia was produced by inoculating guinea-pigs and 

 mice with these bacilli. 



In meat which poisoned a large number of persons, 

 GARTNER found his bacillus euteritidis. The meat was 

 from a cow which had a severe diarrho3a for two days be- 

 fore she was killed. Of twelve persons who ate the flesh 

 raw, all were sick ; while of those who ate of the cooked 

 food a large per cent, were also affected. In the meat and 

 in the spleen of a person who died from the effects of the 

 poison, GARTNER found the bacillus, which proved fatal 

 to animals. Good beef, inoculated with this bacillus and 

 cooked some hours later, killed rabbits, guinea-pigs, and 

 mice. The skin of the people who were poisoned and re- 

 covered peeled off. The period of incubation varied from 

 two to thirty hours. 



August 29, 1887, 256 soldiers and 36 citizens at Middle- 

 burg, Holland, were taken sick after eating meat from a 

 cow which had been killed while suffering from puerperal 

 fever. The symptoms were nausea, vomiting, purging, 

 elevation of temperature, and prostration. In some there 

 were observed dizziness, sleepiness, and dilatation of the 

 pupil. After a few days these symptoms gradually disap- 

 peared, and in many an eczematous eruption of the lips 



