400 BACILLUS BOTULINUS. 



injection. Here also there is a period of incubation of not less 

 than six to twelve hours before the symptoms appear, and when 

 the dose is small a somewhat chronic condition -may result in 

 which local paralyses form a striking feature. The character- 

 istic effects can also be produced by means of the filtered toxin 

 by either of the methods mentioned, though in the case of 

 administration by the ahmentary canal the dose requires to be 

 larger. Here also, as in the casp of the tetanus poison, the 

 potency of the toxin is remarkable, the fatal dose for a guinea- 

 pig of 250 grammes' weight being in some instances .0005 c.c. 

 of the filtered toxin. In cases of poisoning in the human sub- 

 ject the effects would accordingly appear to be produced by 

 absorption of the toxin from the alimentary canal; it is only 

 after or immediately before death that a few bacilli may enter 

 the tissues. Van Ermengem obtained a few colonies from the 

 spleen of a patient who had died from ham-poisoning. The 

 properties of the botulinus toxin have been investigated and 

 have been found to correspond closely, as regards relative insta- 

 bility, conditions of precipitation, etc., with the toxins of diph- 

 theria and tetanus. An antitoxin has also been prepared by 

 Kempner by the usual methods, and has been shown not only 

 to have the neutralising property, but to have considerable 

 therapeutical value when administered some hours after the toxin. 

 The direct combining affinity of the toxin for the central nervous 

 has been demonstrated by Kempner and Schepilewsky by the 

 same methods as Wassermann and Takaki employed in the 

 case of the tetanus toxin. The condition of the nerve cells in 

 experimental poisoning with the botulinus toxin has been in- 

 vestigated independently by Marinesco and by Kempner and 

 Pollack, and these observers agree as to the occurrence of 

 marked degenerative changes, especially in the motor cells 

 in the spinal cord and medulla. Marinesco also observed 

 hypertrophy and proliferation of the neurogUa cells around 

 them. 



These observations, therefore, show that in one variety of 

 meat-poisoning the symptoms are produced by the absorption 

 of the toxins of the bacillus botulinus from the ahmentary canal, 

 and, as Van Ermengem points out, it is of special importance to 

 note that the meat may be extensively contaminated with this 

 bacillus and may contain relatively large quantities of its toxins 



