210 FOOD POISONING. 



and he mentions similar cases due to eating ham. Boutigmy, hav- 

 ing failed to find any poison in the meat furnished at a festival, and 

 to which the serious illness of many was attributed, made a meal of 

 stuffed turkey furnished by the same dealer, but after a short time 

 his countenance became livid, his pulse small and feeble, a cold 

 sweat bathed his body, and violent vomiting and purging followed. 

 Geiseler observed nausea, vomiting, purging and delirium after 

 eating of bacon which was imperfectly cured. Schroder ^ reported 

 cases of poisoning which were due to the eating of the flesh of an ani- 

 mal killed while suffering from foot and mouth disease ; however, 

 both bacteriological and chemical investigations led to no results. 

 Hermann^ and Ksensche^ found in some meat which poisoned 

 people at Breslau a typhoid-like bacillus whose toxin is not de- 

 stroyed by boiling. Kuborn^ found a piece of poisonous meat 

 which was infected with staphylococcus pyogenes flavus. Johne" 

 reported cases of sausage poisoning in which microorganisms similar 

 to the bacillus enteritidis were found. 



The most important contribution that has recently been made to 

 the subject of kreotoxismus consists of the discovery by Van Ermen- 

 gem ' of a bacillus in poisonous meat and the subsequent investigation 

 of this germ and its toxin. More than thirty-four persons were 

 affected and three of these died. The period of incubation varied 

 from nine to twenty hours, and the chief symptoms were pain in the 

 stomach, contractions of the intestines, vomiting, obstinate constipa- 

 tion, pain in the head, fever and delirium, followed in those who re- 

 covered by marked prostration and muscular weakness. The man, 

 who died on the fifth day, passed albuminous urine, and section 

 showed acute gastro-enteritis, acute parenchymatous nephritis, and 

 hyperemia of the lungs. Investigation of the meat in this case 

 showed the presence of a bacillus similar to that found in other out- 

 breaks of kreotoxismus, but the greatest interest in the work of Van 

 Ermengem centers about the cases which occurred at Ellezelles, in 

 Belgium. The ham, which proved poisonous in this case, seemed 

 to be perfectly normal. Those poisoned showed but little or no evi- 

 dence of gastro-intestinal irritation, but nervous symptoms were very 

 prominent, and these consisted of diplopia, mydriasis, ptosis, aphagia, 

 aphonia and anuria. There were two deaths. Other portions of 

 the carcass were eaten without harm and it was observed that the 

 poisonous ham was the only part of the meat which was completely 

 submerged in the brine, and it was inferred from this that the harm- 

 ful germ would be found to be strictly anaerobic. This inference 



' Vierte^ahrschrifi f. gerichtl. Mediein, 1893. 



' Zevtachrift f. Fleisch- und Milchhyffime, 4. 



2 Zeitschrifif. Hygiene, 22. 



'AUgememe med. Zeitung, 1894. 



5 Bericht iiber das Velermarwesen, 1894. 



^ CentrMlattf. BaUeriohgie, 19; also Zeitschrifif. Hygiene, 26, 1. 



