208 FOOB POISONING. 



the lungs, and in one instance a circumscribed pneumonia. Sterilized 

 cultures in larger quantities produced the same effects as the unster- 

 ilized. The symptoms and anatomical changes induced by this germ 

 agree with those observed in Winkel's disease, in the rapidly fatal 

 progress, cyanosis, icterus, rapid respiration, tendency to hemorrhage 

 and fatty degeneration. The most essential difference lies in the fact 

 that hemoglobinuria is a prominent symptom of Winkel's disease, 

 while it does not occur after inoculation with the bacillus enteritidis. 



In August, 1887, 256 soldiers and thirty-six citizens at Middle- 

 burg, Holland, were taken sick after eating meat from a cow which 

 had been killed while suffering from puerperal fever. The symptoms 

 were nausea, vomiting, purging, elevation of temperature, and pros- 

 tration. In some, there were observed dizziness, sleeplessness, and 

 dilatation of the pupil. After a few days these symptoms gradually 

 disappeared, and in many an eczematous eruption of the lips gave 

 annoyance. Pigs, cats and dogs that ate of the offal of this animal 

 were also made sick. Thorough cooking did not destroy the poison, 

 and those who took soup and bouillon made from the meat were 

 affected like those who ate of the muscle fiber. In most of the cases 

 the symptoms came on within twelve hours after eating the meat. 



Basenau first found his bacillus bovis morbificans in the flesh of a 

 cow that was killed while suffering from puerperal fever, and later ^ 

 he has detected the same microorganism in the meat of animals killed 

 while sick with perforative peritonitis, puerperal paralysis, and 

 chronic pyemia. It seems fi-om the researches of this investigator 

 that there are varieties of this germ, the toxins of some of which are 

 destroyed by heating to 100°, while those of others are not. It is 

 more than probable that Basenau's germ is a variety of the colon 

 bacillus and that the toxin is contained within the cell, and whether 

 or not meat infected with this organism will prove harmful depends 

 upon the number of germs present. 



In 1894, Vaughan and Perkins examined some dried beef which 

 had quite seriously poisoned a family of four. There was nothing in 

 the appearance or odor of the beef to cause any suspicion. In fact, 

 it seemed to be of exceptionally good quality. Anaerobic cultures 

 from the interior of the meat were made and developed a bacillus, 

 from two to three times as long as broad, taking the ordinary stains, 

 motile, with no spore formation, not liquefying gelatin, but coagulat- 

 ing milk, growing best at the temperature of the body, but develop- 

 ing its poison at ordinary temperature, producing gas abundantly, 

 and pathogenic to white rats, rabbits, and guinea-pigs. Sterilized 

 cultures were also poisonous. Of 200 men at a banquet at Sturgis, 

 Mich., in April, 1894, everyone who ate of the pressed chicken 

 served was made ill. Some who were not at the banquet but who 

 aided in preparing it, took small bits of the chicken and these also 



^ Archiv f. Sygiene, 32. 



