206 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



1. The principal ectogenic toxic agents are the sausage poisons^ 

 those of fish, and some few from meat. They contain bacteria 

 which do not resist boiling. The pathology of the disturbances 

 which they create consists in a true infection. But these bacteria 

 produce ptomaines which are not destroyed by cooking {mixed 

 infection). Haupt, in studying (1887) poisonings produced by 

 tainted meats at Chemnitz, found a microbe {Proteus mirabilis) 

 which he considered as the pathogenic agent in these accidents. 

 In poisonous sausages and in the intestinal canal of the pig the 

 meat of wdiich had been used in their making, Nauwerk detected a 

 bacillus of putrefaction remarkable for its extreme activity. The 

 different poisons are undoubtedly produced by special micro- 

 organisms generating ptomaines, the chemical composition of which, 

 as well as their effects, may be very different. These, however^ 

 vary with the origin and composition of the meat, the mode in 

 which it is prepared, its curing, also the temperature aud the degree 

 of putrefaction, etc. 



The clinical picture of poisoning through sausages (botulism, 

 allantiasis) has a peculiar significance. Paralysis of certain groups 

 of muscles are added to the symptoms of gastro-enteritis (diarrhea, 

 vomitings, weakness, stupefaction, collapse) ; the muscles of the 

 eye are affected (ptosis or lowering of the upper eyelid) also those 

 of the larynx, pharynx (dysphagia) and of the intestine (constipa- 

 tion), etc. 



Similar paralysis is observed in the course of a large number of 

 infectious diseases, such as hydrophobia, diphtheria, and vitulary 

 fever of the cow. They must be considered as toxic accidents ; we 

 can, indeed, occasion these phenomena experimentally by the injec- 

 tion of certain ptomaines (ptomatocurarine). 



2. The intoxications due to endogenic poisons are produced by 

 meat coming from diseased animals. Bollinger has described these 

 troubles in the human race by the generic expression of intestinal 

 sepsis. Most poisonings from meat belong to this class. Here, 

 again, the pathogenic activity being a function of germs and their 

 wasted products — ptomaines — cooking can only relieve the meat of 

 part of its toxic property. The meats which cause these poisonings 

 most frequently come from cows affected by puerperal septicemia, 

 or from calves slaughtered during the course of pyemic polyarth- 

 ritis. Suppurating nephritis, septic diseases of lungs and liver, 

 enteritis, peritonitis, and mastitis, also communicate toxic properties 



