212 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



consciousness ; fever has been absent and there has been 

 an absence of disturbances of the stomach and intestine. 

 The symptoms seldom come on before twelve to twenty- 

 four hours after the ingestion of the poison. Very 

 similar symptoms were produced by Van Ermengen in 

 certain animals by giving them watery extracts of the 

 infected ham or cultures either by the stomach or by 

 subcutaneous injections. It is noteworthy that in these 

 animal experiments there was observed a period of in- 

 cubation of not less than six to twelve hours before the 

 onset of symptoms. The characteristic paralytic effects 

 can be induced by means of the filtered toxin, and it is 

 therefore clear that the phenomena of botulism are to 

 be ascribed, like the nervous phenomena of tetanus, to a 

 powerful toxin. Indeed, the properties of the toxin of 

 B. botulinus have been studied and have been shown to 

 resemble closely the toxins of tetanus and diphtheria 

 with respect to instability, conditions of precipitation, 

 etc. An antitoxin 1 has been prepared by Kempner. 

 It has the power of neutralizing the toxin and has con- 

 siderable therapeutic effect when given a short time after 

 the toxin. 



It is practically very important to realize that meat 

 may be extensively infected with the B. botulinus and 

 may contain relatively large quantities of the toxins with- 

 out showing the ordinary signs of decomposition. We 



1 For a discussion of the conditions under which antitoxin 

 formation occurs see J. Forssman, "Studien iiber die Antitoxin- 

 bildung bei aktiver Immunisierung gegen Botulismus," Cen- 

 tralbl. f. Bakt., Orig., xxxviii, p. 463, 1905. 



