FOOD POISONING. 
§ 713-] 
539 
twenty-four persons were poisoned by food which had been kept in 
an ill-ventilated cellar. The articles suspected were an American ham, 
an open game pie, and certain jellies. The bride died. Symptoms 
commenced in from six to forty-three hours. 
1886. Poisoning by Veal Pie at Iron Bridge. —Twelve out of fifteen 
ate of the pie ; all were taken ill in from six to twelve hours. 
1887. Poisoning at Retford of Eighty Persons from eating Pork 
Pie or Brawn. —Symptoms commenced at various intervals, from eight 
to thirty-six hours. 
1889. The Carlisle B Case. —Poisoning by pork pies or boiled salt 
pork. Number of persons attacked, about twenty-five. 
1891. Poisoning by a Meat Pie at Portsmouth. —Thirteen persons 
suffered from serious illness. Portions of the pie were poisonous to 
mice. 1 
The symptoms in all these cases were not precisely alike ; but they 
were so far identical as to show as great a similarity as in cases when a 
number of persons are poisoned by the same chemical substance. Arsenic, 
for instance, produces several types of poisoning ; so does phosphorus. 
Severe gastro-enteric disturbance, with more or less affection of the 
nervous system, were the main characteristics. These symptoms com¬ 
menced, as before stated,’at various intervals after ingestion of the food ; 
but they came on with extreme suddenness. Rigors, prostration, giddi¬ 
ness, offensive diarrhoea, followed by muscular twitchings, dilatation of 
the pupil, drowsiness, deepening in bad cases to coma, were commonly 
observed. The post-mortem appearances were those of enteritis, with 
inflammatory changes in the kidney and liver. Convalescence was slow ; 
sometimes there was desquamation of the skin. 
In many of these cases Dr Klein found bacteria which, under certain 
conditions, were capable of becoming pathogenic ; but in no case does 
there seem to have been at the same time an exhaustive chemical 
inquiry ; so that, although there was evidence of a poison passing through 
the kidney, the nature of the poison still remains obscure. 
§ 713. German Sausage Poisoning (Botulism).—A series of cases 
may be picked out from the accounts of sausage poisoning in Germany, 
all of which evidently depend upon a poison producing the same 
symptoms, and the essentially distinctive mark of which is extreme dry 
ness of the skin and mucous membranes, dilatation of the pupil, and 
paralysis of the upper eyelids (ptosis). In an uncertain time after eating 
sausages or some form of meat, from one to twenty-four hours, there is a 
general feeling of uneasiness, a sense of weight about the stomach, nausea, 
1 To these may be added the Chadderton case investigated by Dr Durham. Thirty- 
five persons were attacked in Chadderton, with three deaths ; twelve in Oldham, one 
of which was fatal. Dr Durham seems to have fairly well established a connection 
between the outbreak and veal pies infected by the Bacillus enteritidis .— Brit. Med. 
Journ., 1898. 
