54 Bulletin No. 207. 



strongly suggests that B. botulinus does not develop within the 

 body of warm blooded animals, and that the intoxication is the 

 result of toxin generated upon or in the food before consump- 

 tion, rather than a septic infection or intoxication dependent 

 upon development within the body, following ingestion. Brieger 

 and Kempner 10 after precipitating and purifying the toxin to 

 a degree show its specificity upon the nerve tissue. Kempner 

 and Schepilewski 11 cite the neutralization of the toxin after 

 contact with guinea pig brain tissue, spinal marrow substance, 

 cholesterin, lecithin and even other fatty substances. 



It is possible that some of the cases of food poisoning in 

 North America are associated with this organism or closely 

 allied pathogenic anaerobes. Sustaining this contention are 

 the observations of Wilbur and Ophuels. 12 More recent evidence 

 of the presence of B. botulinus infection in man, independent 

 and remote from the consumption of meat products, is cited by 

 Dickson 13 in the report of an outbreak in California following 

 the ingestion of canned vegetables and fruits. Buckley and 

 Shippen in demonstrating the pathogenicity of B. botulinus 

 for horses refer to the origin of a strain of B. botulinus from 

 cheese which had apparently proved fatal to a number of per- 

 sons. 



Analogy of Botulism to Forage Poisoning. 



The clinical analogy of forage poisoning in domestic ani- 

 mals to botulism (meat poisoning) in man was first suggested by 

 Pearson 14 in 1901. Mohler 15 mentioned this analogy to empha- 

 size the probable mode of infection in sporadic outbreaks of 

 forage poisoning as being closely associated with the ingestion 

 of contaminated forage. Shippen recognized a possible rela- 

 tion between clinical botulism in man and clinical forage poison- 

 ing in animals, yet it seems that no definite effort was made to 

 establish this correlation until Buckley and Shippen reported 



10 Deutsche med. Wochenschr., 1897, Nr. 32. 

 "Zeitschr. f. H 1 

 12 Arch. Int. Mec 



iiZeitschr. f.^Hyg-.,^Bd. 27, 213," 



"Arch. Int. Med., Oct. 1914, p. 589 (cited by Dickson). 

 13 Jour. Amer. Med. Ass'n, LXV, 1915, pp. 492-496. 

 "Veterinary Journal, 1901, cited by Buckley and Shippen. 

 15 Bui. No. 65, Bureau of Animal Industry, 1914. 



