572 



VITAL ACTIONS OF THE LOWEK FUNGI, 



Production of 

 ptomaines by 

 cholera 

 spirilla. 



By other 

 bacilli. 



Absence of 

 ptomaines in 

 anthrax cul- 

 tivations. 



but formed, with chloride of platinum, a crystalline 

 compound which could be analysed. More accurate 

 details are still wanting with regard to this base. 



The toxic action of pure cultivations has further been 

 observed in various kinds of bacteria, without any 

 attempt having been made to isolate the poisonous sub- 

 stances. For example, in the case of the spirilla of 

 Asiatic cholera (see page 440) ; further, in a whole group 

 of bacilli which cause a similar toxic effect with special 

 involvement of the intestine, such as bacillus crassus 

 sputigenus, bacillus oxytocus perniciosus, &c. (see 

 page 331). Other pathogenic bacteria have been in- 

 vestigated for similar products of tissue change, but as 

 yet with negative results; thus, Nencki has in vain 

 examined cultivations of anthrax bacilli for nitrogenous 

 bases, and Marme has arrived at the same result with 

 cultivations of anthrax bacilli made in the author's 

 laboratory. 



Hygienic 



The facts which have as yet been made out with 

 regard to the occurrence of ptomaines are evidently of 

 very great importance. In the first place, they are of 

 importance in medical jurisprudence, for medical jurists 

 must, in investigating cases of poisoning, proceed in a 

 totally new direction, and with the most extreme care. 

 Hygiene also has an interest not less intense in the 

 accurate investigation of these peculiar products of 

 the tissue change of bacteria. It appears that the 

 wholesale poisoning of people so often observed, and 

 which resembles severe epidemics of contagious dis- 

 eases in its mode of appearance, is commonly caused 

 by decomposing nutrient materials in the early stage 

 Poisoning by of putrefaction. In cheese, sausages, meat, or fish, 

 ing 1 ptomaine's t which these cases of poisoning are usually referred, 

 fa e bases described above, or others as yet unknown, 



t/ 



have probably been formed under the action of bacteria 

 from the albumen of the nutrient materials in question, 

 and have occasioned these toxic symptoms. A circum- 

 stance which favours the occurrence of these accidents, 



(cheese, fish, 

 meat. 



