120 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 



a body in the act of decomposition (it may 

 be named the exciter,} added to a mixed 

 fluid in which its constituents are contained, 

 can reproduce itself in that fluid, exactly in 

 the same manner as new yeast is produced 

 when yeast is added to liquids containing 



Eluten. This must be more certainly ef- 

 >cted when the liquid acted upon contains 

 the body by the metamorphosis of which the 

 exciter has been originally formed. 



It is also obvious, that if the exciter be 

 able to impart its own state of transformation 

 to one only of the component parts of the 

 mixed liquid acted upon, its own reproduc- 

 tion may be the consequence of the decom- 

 position of this one body. 



This law may be applied to organic sub- 

 stances forming part of the animal organism. 

 We know that all the constituents of these 

 substances are formed from the blood, and 

 that the blood by its nature and constitution 

 is one of the most complex of all existing 

 matters. 



Nature has adapted the blood for the re- 

 production of every individual part of the 

 organism ; its principal character consists in 

 its component parts being subordinate to 

 every attraction. These are in a perpetual 

 state of change or transformation, which is 

 effected in the most various ways through 

 the influence of the different organs. 



The indivdual organs, such as the stomach, 

 carsp nil the organic substances conveyed 

 t^ ili.-m which are capable of transformation 

 to assume new forms. The stomach com- 

 pels the elements of these substances to 

 unite into a compound fitted for th,e form- 

 ation of the blood. But the blood pos- 

 sesses no power of causing transformations j 

 on the contrary, its principal character con- 

 sists in its readily suffering transformations ; 

 and no other matter can be compared in this 

 respect with it. 



Now it is a well-known fact, that when 

 blood, cerebral substance, gall, pus, and 

 other substances in a state of putrefaction, 

 are laid upon fresh wounds, vomiting, de- 

 bility, and at length death, are occasioned. 

 It is also well known that bodies in anato- 

 mical rooms frequently pass into a state of 

 decomposition which is capable of imparting 

 itself to the living body, the smallest cut 

 with a knife which has been used in their 

 dissection producing in these cases dan- 

 gerous consequences. 



The poison of bad sausages belongs to this 

 class of noxious substances. Several hun- 

 dred cases are known in which death has 

 occurred from the use of this kind of food. 

 In Wiirtemberg especially these cases are 

 Tery frequent, for there the sausages are pre- 

 pared from very various materials. Blood, 

 liver, bacon, brains, milk, meal, and bread, 

 are mixed together with salt and spices ; 

 the mixture is then put into bladders or in- 

 testines, and after being boiled is smoked. 



When these sausages are well prepared, 

 they may be preserved for months, and fur- 

 nish a nourishing savoury food j but when 



the spices and salt are deficient, and particu- 

 larly when they are smoked too late or nor 

 sufficiently, they undergo a peculiar kind oi 

 putrefaction, which begins at the centre of 

 the sausage. Without any appreciable 

 escape of gas taking place they become 

 paler in colour, and more soft and greasy 

 in those parts which have undergone putre- 

 faction, and they are found to contain free 

 lactic acid, or lactate of ammonia ; products 

 which are universally formed during' the 

 putrefaction of animal and vegetable mat- 

 ters. 



The cause of the poisonous nature of 

 these sausages was ascribed at first to hy- 

 drocyanic acid, and afterwards to sebacic 

 acid, although neither of these substances 

 had been detected in them. But sebacic 

 acid is no more poisonous than benzoic acid, 

 with which it has so many properties in 

 common ; and the symptoms produced are 

 sufficient to show that hydrocyanic acid is 

 not the poison. 



The death which is the consequence of 

 poisoning by putrefied sausages succeeds 

 very lingering and remarkable symptoms. 

 There is a gradual wasting of muscular 

 fibre, and of all the constituents of the body 

 similarly composed; the patient becomes 

 much emaciated, dries to a complete mum- 

 my, and finally dies. The caicase is stiff as 

 if frozen, and is not subject to putrefaction. 

 During the progress of the disease the saliva 

 becomes viscous and acquirer an offensive 

 smell. 



Experiments have been made for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the pitsence of some 

 matter in the sausages to vkich their poi- 

 sonous action could be ascribed ; but no such 

 matter has been detected. Boiling watei 

 and alcohol completely desiroy the poison- 

 ous properties of the sausages, without 

 themselves acquiring similar properties. 



Now this is the peculiar character of all 

 substances which exert an action by virtue 

 of their existing condition of those bodies 

 the elements of which are in the state of de- 

 composition or transposition ; a state which 

 is destroyed by boiling water and alcohol 

 without the cause of the influence being im- 

 parted to those liquids; for a state of action 

 or power cannot be preserved in a liquid. 



Sausages, in the state here described, ex- 

 ercise an action upon the organism, in con- 

 sequence of the stomach and other parts 

 with which they come in contact not having 

 the power to arrest their decomposition ; and 

 entering the blood in some way or other, 

 while still possessing their whole power, 

 they impart their peculiar action to the con- 

 stituents of that fluid. 



The poisonous properties of decayed sau- 

 sages are not destroyed by the stomach as 

 those of the small-pox virus are. All the 

 substances in the body capable of putrefac- 

 tion are gradually decomposed during the 

 course of the disease, and after death nothing 

 remains except fat, tendons, bones, and a 

 few other substances which are incapable of 



