KBEOTOXISMUS. 201 



from the muscles of these animals the germ may be recovered in 

 pure culture. After filtration through porcelain the sterile cultures 

 are quite as poisonous as before sterilization. Heat does not de- 

 stroy the toxin and at least one poisonous substance may be 

 obtained by distillation. Filtered cultures give an intense red 

 coloration with ferric chlorid. Sieber has obtained from growths of 

 this bacillus cadaverin and other known ptomains, but there are at 

 least two undetermined bases present and one of these suffices to kill 

 frogs in doses of 3.5 mg. The symptoms induced in animals by the 

 use of sterilized cultures consist of shortness of breath and unrest, 

 followed by apathy and paralysis. 



Kreotoxismiis. — It has long been known that the flesh of animals 

 dead from certain diseases or slaughtered while suffering from these 

 diseases, is not a safe food for man. The Mosaic law forbade the 

 eating of the flesh of animals dead from disease : " Ye shall not eat of 

 anything that dieth of itself ; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that 

 is in thy gates, that he may eat it ; or thou mayst sell it unto an alien, 

 for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not 

 seethe a kid in his mother's milk." (Deuteronomy, XIV, 21.) The 

 first part of this command is certainly wise counsel, but the feeding 

 of a visitor with such food would not be now regarded as in accord 

 with the rules of hospitable entertainment, and the sale of it even to 

 an alien should not be permitted by the law of any country. The 

 most common diseases that may be transmitted from the lower ani- 

 mals to man by the consumption of the flesh or milk of the former 

 as food by the latter, are tuberculosis, anthrax, symptomatic anthrax, 

 pleuro-pneumonia, puerperal fever, glanders, various septicemias, 

 trichinosis, mucous diarrhoea, and actinomycosis. However, it does 

 not come within the scope of this book to discuss the transmission 

 of these diseases from the lower animals to man, and we shall limit 

 the subject of kreotoxismus to those untoward effects which arise 

 from the eating of flesh infected with non-specific, toxicogenic bac- 

 teria. 



Sausage poisoning, sometimes designated as botulism or botulis- 

 mus, and sometimes known as allantiasis, has long been recognized 

 as a cause of sickness and death and its causation has been a subject 

 of theory and investigation for one hundred years or longer. It is 

 probable that some of the earlier epidemics attributed to botulism 

 were in fact due to trichiniasis, and it was not until the discovery of 

 the parasite to which the latter condition is due that differentiation 

 was possible. A large proportion of the cases of sausage poisoning 

 have occurred in Wiirtemberg and the immediately adjacent portions 

 of Baden. This fact has been correctly ascribed to the methods 

 there practised of preparing and curing sausage. It is said to be 

 common for people to use the blood of the sheep, ox and goat in the 



