MICROBIAL FOOD POISONING 495 



The curative principle of rice polishings has been studied by Funk who 

 has named it vitamine. He ascribes the causation of beriberi to a lack 

 of this supposedly necessary vitamine in the food and this theory has 

 been very favorably received. It must be acknowledged, however, 

 that the etiology of beriberi is still not convincingly proven. The 

 discovery of a remedy which eradicates a given disease is not sufficient 

 to prove that the lack of this particular therapeutic agent is the es- 

 sential cause of the disease. 



Pellagra is a cachexia, characterized by a definite sort of skin erup- 

 tion, which has been ascribed to the use of maize (Indian corn) as 

 food. This disease is discussed in a separate section (page 813). 



The Chemical Nature of Food Poisons 



The poisonous substances in foods are for the most part of the same 

 nature as the poisons of the pathogenic bacteria. The simplest in 

 structure of these poisons belong to the alkaloidal substances, substi- 

 tuted ammonia and ammonium compounds, called ptomains (page 171). 

 Several of these have been prepared in a pure state, for example, mytilo- 

 toxin (C6H16NO2) from poisonous shell-fish, and neurin (CjHs'N- 

 (CH3)30H) from putrefied horse, beef, and human flesh. Although 

 ptomains undoubtedly occur at times in poisonous foods, they are not 

 now considered of so much importance in food poisoning as formerly, 

 for in the majority of samples of poisonous food the search for ptomains 

 has been in vain. The poisonous effects are believed rather to be due 

 for the most part to much more complex bodies resulting from the 

 earliest analytic changes in the food protein, or else to bodies built up 

 by actual synthesis by the bacteria. Such substances are classed with 

 the toxic proteins and the true toxins. Their chemical composition 

 and structure are not definitely known. 



References 



DieudeomnS, A., translation by Bolduan, C. P., Bacterial food poisoning. E. B. 

 Treat and Co., New York, 1909. 



Novy, P. G., Food poisons, Osler-McCrae, Modem Medicine, 1914, Vol. II, 

 pp. 450-471. 



Thresh and Porter, Preservatives in food and food examination. J. and A. 

 Churchill, London, igo6. 



Vaughan and Novy, Cellular toxins. Lea Bros, and Co., Philadelphia, 1902. 



