52 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



Poisonous Canned Meats. — Cases of poisoning from 

 eating canned meats have become quite frequent. Although 

 it may be possible that in some instances the untoward 

 effects result from metallic poisoning, in the great majority 

 of cases the poisonous principles are formed by putrefactive 

 changes. In many instances it is probable that decomposi- 

 tion begins after the can is opened by the consumer. In 

 others, the canning is carelessly done and putrefaction is 

 far advanced before the food reaches the consumer. In 

 still other instances, the meat may be taken from diseased 

 animals, or it may undergo putrefactive changes before 

 the canning. What is true of canned meats is also true of 

 canned fruits and vegetables. 



Dr. AsHWORTH, of Smithland, Iowa, has reported to us- 

 three fatal cases of poisoning from canned apricots. An 

 infant, which was only eight days old, and which must 

 have received the poison from its mother's breasts, died 

 within a few hours. The mother died forty-three hours 

 after eating the apricots, and the father on the sixth day. 

 The symptoms corresponded with those of poisoning by 

 tyrotoxicon. However, it seems that no analysis was 

 made, and these may have been cases of mineral poisoning. 



Poisonous Cheese. — In 1827 HIjnnefeld made some 

 analyses of poisonous cheese, and experimented with ex- 

 tracts upon the lower animals. He accepted the ideas of 

 Kerner in regard to poisonous sausage in a somewhat 

 modified form, and thought the active agents to be sebacic 

 and caseic acids. About the same time, SERTtJRNER, 

 making analyses of poisonous cheese for Westrumb, also 

 traced the poisonous principles, as he supposed, to these 

 fatty acids. We see from this that during the first part of 

 the present century the fatty acid theory, as it may be 

 called, was generally accepted. 



In 1848, Christison, after referring to the work of 

 HtJNNEFELD and SertIjrner, made the following state- 

 ment : " His (Hiinnefeld's) experiments, however, are not 

 quite conclusive of the fact that these fatty acids are really 

 the poisonous principles, as he has not extended his experi- 



