SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 



Abstracts of Communications. 



Sixty-third meeting. 



Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. President Lusk in the 



chair. 



33 (965) 



Observations upon the so-called food intoxication of infants with 

 especial reference to the alveolar air. 



By John Howland and W. McK. Marriott. 



[From the Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University.] 



There is a condition which has been described under the heading 

 of "Food Intoxication" and "Toxicose" in infants, which is a 

 very fatal one. It is found in the course of severe diarrhoeas and 

 as the terminal stage of various disturbances of nutrition. It is 

 characterized by several striking symptoms, chief among which are 

 dyspnea and excitement, changing into stupor and eventually 

 coma. In its early stages, the condition is difficult to recognize. 

 When it is marked it is unmistakable. 



The observations which we have to report were made with the 

 desire of learning more with regard to the essential causes of the 

 condition and of developing some method by which it could be 

 recognized in its incipiency when successful therapy is possible. 



It was suggested many years ago by Czerny that acids might 

 have some part to play in it for the reason that the dyspnea re- 

 sembles that seen in rabbits when given mineral acids and the 

 condition has been often spoken of as acidosis, meaning thereby 

 an increase in the acetone substances. These, however, have not 

 been found to be in excess. 



For the last two years we have examined the blood of children 



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