THE BACTERIA OF SOIL, AIR, WATER, ETC. 1 39 



fully scrutinized which are to be eaten after little or no cook- 

 ing, particularly salads, green vegetables, fruits, and .the Hke. 

 Under exceptional circumstances they may become agents for 

 conveying infectious diseases. Conn showed that there was 

 good reason for attributing an epidemic of typhoid fever among 

 students at Middletown, Connecticut, to raw oysters. After 

 having been collected from the oyster-beds, these oysters 

 were placed in a small stream to fatten, where they were 

 exposed to contamination from a sewer. Into this sewer the 

 discharges of a case of typhoid fever were found to have been 

 running at the time when the oysters were fattening. An 

 epidemic at Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1902, was traced 

 to nearly similar causes and conditions.* 



The ordinary processes for curing and salting meat cannot 

 be relied upon to destroy pathogenic bacteria. 



Cases of poisoning by eating oysters, fish, meat in the form 

 of sausage or canned meat, and other articles of food are not 

 rare. These cases belong to the same class as those poisoned 

 by milk and cheese already mentioned. They are due to 

 products of bacterial decomposition. Such affections are 

 quite commonly called ptomaine poisoning, although the 

 poisons are not ptomaines in most cases. Probably a number 

 of bacteria exist which are capable of affecting changes in 

 meat and other foods either before or efter ingestion. Among 

 these are an anaerobic bacillus described by Van Ermengem 

 (B. botulinus), various members of the groups represented 

 by B. proteus and B. coli communis (including paracolon 

 bacilli), and the bacillus enteritidis of Gaertner. In the case 

 of B. enteritidis a genuine infection of the patient and gastro- 

 enteritis may occur.f 



* Philadelphia Medical Journal. November i, 1902. 



tSee Vaughan and Novy. The Cellular Toxins. igo2. Ohlmacher. 

 Food-Intoxication from Oatmeal. Journal of Medical Research. Vol. VII., 

 p. 420. Galeotti and Zardo. Centralblatt jiir Bakteriologie. Vol. XXXI. 1902. 

 Orig. p. S93- 



