BACTERIAL POISONS 



225 



are of an intensely poisonous nature. If such substances 

 develop in food, they may render it unwholesome or even 

 fatally poisonous. To such poisonous decomposition prod- 

 ucts are due instances of poisoning from eating cheese, 

 quite a number of which are on record. A similar cause 

 explains the still larger number of cases of ice-cream poison- 

 ing, when many people have been rendered seriously and 

 even fatally sick by the eating of ice cream. Similar 

 effects have sometimes resulted from the use of milk, 

 although such cases are rare. Many cases of poisoning are 

 recorded from the use of m^ats, fish, and sometimes other 

 foods. 



The poisoning in all such cases must not be confused 

 with diseases produced by bacteria. Sometimes food may 

 contain disease germs, and these may enter the body when 

 the food is swallowed, and by growing inside of our bodies 

 produce disease. (See Chapter XVI.) But in cases of 

 poisoning from eating food the bacteria grow simply in the 

 food. They do not live in the body nor do they produce 

 any definite bacterial disease. The effects are due simply to 

 the products of decomposition which have been developed 

 in the foods by certain kinds of bacteria. 



These troubles are much more common than we are apt 

 to realize. Since bacteria grow best at high temperatures, 

 it is not surprising to find more cases of food poisoning in 

 warm weather. It is not an unknown occurrence to have 

 a general poisoning follow any one of the innumerable 

 banquets held in our communities. Hundreds of cases of 

 intestinal trouble occasionally follow such banquets. The 

 illnesses resulting are rarely serious, but temporarily they 

 produee great inconvenience and trouble. They are prob- 



