KBEOTOXISMUS. 203 



delirium and the mind remained clear to the last. At autopsy the 

 skin was found to be rough and the abdomen retracted. The large 

 vessels in the upper part of the stomach were filled with black blood 

 and the content of the stomach consisted of a reddish-brown, semi- 

 fluid substance, which gave off a repugnant acid odor. In one case 

 the omentum was found greatly congested. The large intestine was 

 pale and the right ventricle of the heart was filled with dark fluid 

 blood. 



Schiiz cites thirteen cases of poisoning from liver sausage in which 

 the symptoms differed from the foregoing in the following respects : 

 (1) In only one out of the thirteen was there constipation. All the 

 others had numerous typhoid-like stools. (2) Symptoms involving 

 the sense of sight were present in only three ; in all the pupils were 

 unchanged. (3) The croupous cough was wholly wanting ; though 

 in many there was complete loss of voice. Difficulty of swallowing 

 was complained of by only one. (4) Delirium was marked in all; 

 and in one the disturbance of the mental faculties was prominent for 

 several weeks. (5) There were no deaths. (6) The time between 

 eating of the sausage and the appearance of the symptoms varied 

 from eighteen to twenty-four hours and the duration of sickness from 

 one to four weeks ; though in one case complete recovery did not 

 occur until after two and one-half months. The sausages were not 

 smoked and all observed a garlic odor, though no garlic had been 

 added to the meat. 



Tripe reports sixty-four cases, in which the stools were frequent, 

 watery, and of offensive odor ; in some there was delirium. In the 

 one fatal case the hands and face were cold and swollen ; the pulse, 

 rapid and weak ; the pupils, contracted but responsive to light ; and 

 the small intestine, inflamed. 



Hedinger reports two cases with the usual symptoms, but during 

 recovery dilatation of the pupils was followed by contraction. Birds 

 ate of this sausage and were not affected. In Roser's cases, section 

 showed abscess of the tonsils, a dark, bluish appearance of the 

 mucous membrane of the pharynx, larynx, and bronchial tubes, dark 

 redness of the fundus of the stomach, and circumscribed gray, red 

 and black spots on the mucous membrane of the intestine ; the liver 

 was brittle and the spleen solid. 



Many theories concerning the nature of the active principle of 

 poisonous sausage have been advanced. It was once believed to 

 consist of pyroligneous acid, supposed to be absorbed by the meat 

 from the smoke used in curing, but it was found that unsmoked 

 sausage also might be poisonous. Emmert beKeved the active agent 

 to be hydrocyanic acid, and Jager's theory supposed the presence of 

 picric acid ; but these acids are not found in poisonous sausage and 

 their toxicological effects are wholly unlike those observed in sausage 

 poisoning. Kerner believed the poison to consist of either caseic or 



