254 The Bacteriology of Foods 



that is highly toxic and not destroyed by heating. Human beings 

 consuming meat infected by these micro-organisms, and especially 

 by Bacillus enteritidis, may be seriously and perhaps fatally in- 

 fected if the bacilli are alive, or more or less seriously intoxicated 

 if the bacilli are dead as the result of the cooking. 



One of the most important forms of meat poisoning is that known 

 as allantiasis (aXXas, a sausage) or botidism {botulus, a sausage). 



ALLANTIASIS, BOTULISM OR SAUSAGE POISONING 

 Bacillus Botulinus (von Ermengem) 



General Characteristics. — ^A large, motile, flagellated,^ anaerobic, aerogenic, 

 sporogenic, liquefying, non-chromogenic, pathogenic bacillus, staining by ordin- 

 ary solution of anilin dyes, and by Gram's method. 



In 1896 in the town of Ellezelles in Belgium a considerable number 

 of persons were taken with a peculiar iUness, the nature of which 

 was obscure. Upon investigation it was found that they had all 

 eaten portions of a certain imperfectly cured ham. An investiga- 



•-^ ' >- 



Fig. 82. — Bacillus botulinus (Kolle and Wassermann). 



tion on the part of von Ermengem* resulted in the discovery, in the 

 ham, of the micro-organism to which he gave the name Bacillus 

 botulinus. It has since been much studied and has taken its place 

 as one of the most important micro-organisms of food-poisoning. 



The organism is by nature a saprophyte of limited distribution. 

 Von Ermengem examined 52 samples of miscellaneous earths and 

 fecal matter and failed to find it. Kempner and Pollakf found it in 

 the dung of healthy hogs. R6mer$ found it in a remnant of ham 

 that had caused illness. The flesh was dotted with spots and per- 

 vaded by gas pockets. In both the original case studied by von 

 Ermengem and this later case studied by Romer, the anaerobic 

 Bacillus botulinus grew in association with an aerobic coccus. 



*"Zeitschr. fiir Hygiene," 1897, xxvi, p. 1. 



t "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1897, No. 52. 



t " Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., 1900, xvii, 857. 



