MYCOTIC OB INFECTIOUS GASTRO-ENTERITIS. 



207 



to the meat. Meats of healthy appearance and of an almost normal 

 taste sometimes produce poisoning. These peculiarities are ex- 

 plained as follows : the meats come either from animals killed at 

 the beginning of some serious disease, or they have undergone a 

 certain degree of alteration after having been killed. 



The symptoms induced by these poisonings are those of septic 

 gastro-enteritis. They are the same in animals as in human beings : 

 vomiting, diarrhea, colics, intense fever, extreme weakness, de- 

 pression of sensibility, and collapse. In man they have sometimes 

 a great resemblance to those of cholera and abdominal typhus, and 

 this has caused meat poisons to be considered as one of the causes of 

 this latter affection. Whilst it may be true that the symptomatology 

 of typhus can be produced by other agents than the bacillus of this 

 disease, this one nevertheless constitutes a specific morbid entity. 

 All the attempts to inoculate the typhus of man upon animals have 

 failed, while the action of meat poisons are very quickly felt by 

 animals. 



In most epidemics of poisonings by tainted meat observed in 

 the human race, accidents of the same nature have been observed 

 in dogs, cats, pigs, and poultry.^ 



MYCOTIC GASTRO-ENTERITIS OF HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS PRO- 

 DUCED BY THE INGESTION OF PLANTS COVERED WITH 

 FUNGI (MOULDINESS, RUST, OR BLACK RUST) : FUNGOUS 

 POISONINGS. 



Etiolog'y. Under the names of intestinal typhus, typhoid gastro- 

 enteritis, etc., there has been mentioned, in herbivorous animals, a 

 group of morbid conditions which are really poisonings, or which 

 are at least similar with those we have just studied in carnivorous 

 animals. Frauenholz has described an epizootic of this kind, 

 observed upon oxen fed on spoiled beets from a sugar factory ; 

 Schleg has seen the same accidents in the cow, and Rey in the 

 horse, following alimentation of fermented or spoiled potatoes. 

 Microbic and ptomaine infection of the blood is very distinct from 

 the defined gastric and cerebral symptoms, as well as from the 

 complications occurring in most cases. 



Veterinary publications contain a great number of observations 

 on poisonings due to mouldiness and fungi of food which are in- 



* Huber : Archiv der Heilkunde, Bd. xix. 



