CHAPTER XVI 



BOTULISM SAUSAGE POISONING 



History. In certain parts of Germany, especially in Wurtemburg 

 and neighboring sections of Baden and Bavaria, where sausage, a 

 favorite article of diet, is imperfectly cured and eaten raw, poisoning 

 from this article of diet has long been known. Other foods, as meats, 

 especially pork and fish, and vegetable preparations sometimes pro- 

 duce alarming and even fatal illness. As a rule, the foods which prove 

 harmful are those which have been prepared for a relatively long 

 time before they are eaten. The term "botulism," as here used, does 

 not cover every form of food poisoning, but only those in which the 

 poisonous substance is the product of a certain organism. In 1895 

 some thirty cases of food poisoning occurred in a small Belgian village 

 and were investigated by Van Ermengem of Ghent. The food in this 

 case was a ham which had been kept in a dilute brine. It was from 

 a sound animal, a part of which had been eaten in the fresh state 

 without harm. In fact, the companion ham from the same brine had 

 been eaten without disturbing those who partook of it. The sound 

 piece lay near the surface and was not fully covered by the brine. 

 The faulty ham was on the bottom of the vat and completely excluded 

 from the air. It was not noticeably decomposed, but was marked by 

 soft, colored spots and the odor of butyric acid. In it the Bacillus 

 botulinus was found. A watery extract from the meat was injected 

 into various animals and found to be intensely poisonous. In cats, 

 it caused dilatation of the pupils, an abundant mucus secretion in 

 the mouth and pharynx, prolapse of the tongue, roughness of the voice 

 followed by complete aphonia, difficulty in swallowing and paralytic 

 symptoms, followed by death in from four to eight days. Mice, 

 guinea-pigs, rabbits and apes were affected in much the same way. The 

 last-mentioned animals were found to be equally susceptible when 

 fed with the meat or its extract, while cats, rats, dogs and chickens 

 were not susceptible by the mouth. Some five years later, another 

 ham kept under similar conditions had a like effect and contained the 



