Foods of all kinds may thus become the source of toxic symptoms through the effects of putrefaction; they may transmit various micro-organisms: those of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, trichino sis, etc. Vegetable matter used as food, grains, fungi, etc., represent exceptions to this rule.
Apart from added poison and para sitic disease, meat may become poison ous in three ways: (a) from the presence of disease, at the time of slaughter, in the animal from which the meat is derived; (b) from micro-organisms which attack or develop in meat subsequent to slaughter; (c) from the presence of toxalbumoses or of ptomaines. Mann (Med. Chronicle, July, '96).
Outbreaks of disease due to meat poi soning are dependent upon infections by living bacilli. Only two kinds of bacilli are definitely related to the etiology of such outbreaks, namely: the bacillus enteritidis of Gartner and the anaerobic bacillus butyricus of van Ermenghem. Of these the former is the more impor tant. Whenever the source of the illness was traced, the animal supplying the meat was found to be diseased. The cow and the calf are the animals espe cially liable to furnish the bacillus. Herbert E. Durham (Brit. Med. Jour., Dec. 17, '96).
Meat Poisoning. — SYMPTOMS. — The symptoms produced by poisonous meat may be grouped in two divisions: (1) those due to a true infection; (2) those due to simple poisoning. In the first division the train of symptoms runs the usual course of an infectious disease, as shown by the occurrence of symptoms suggesting typhoid fever in a large num ber of people who had eaten of meat from an animal killed while moribund. In the second division the symptoms usually resemble those due to acute gastro-enteritis: violent vomiting and purging; rapid loss of strength, with extreme depression; cramps in the calves of the legs; and general coldness of the surface, with subnormal tempera ture. In these cases the average pro -dromal period is shorter than in those of Class 1, and the acute stage of the illness does not exceed a few days at the longest. (Mann.) The histories vary considerable, how ever. Diarrhoea is not always witnessed, neither is vomiting a feature, probably depending upon the intestinal area in volved (Durham). At times the tem perature is raised. Pneumonic symp toms may also appear, while the frontal cephalalgia and marked symptoms of in fluenza may suggest the presence of this disease. Great weakness attends all cases. Herpes labialis, rashes, and des quamations occasionally follow the act ive period.
—Any kind of meat, beef, mutton, lamb, etc., may, when more or less putrid, give rise to symptoms of poisoning, but various combinations or modes of preparation show a special tendency in this direction. Sausage poi
soning prevails especially in Germany, where outbreaks are quite frequent. Pork-pie, ham, and veal-pie represent prolific causes of poisoning in England and France. Any kind of fowl—turkey, chicken, goose, etc.—may be recorded among the foods that have given rise to serious poisoning, — though in some cases no evidence of putrefaction could be discerned. An outbreak of typhoid may be suspected in wholesale poison ing, as in the memorable case at Sabina, Iowa, in which forty or fifty guests at a wedding banquet who had partaken of a chicken-salad were attacked by what seemed to be in many cases typical ty phoid. This claim was actually set up as part of the defense in the numerous damage suits that were brought.
Meats mainly acquire toxic properties through delay in their use as food after slaughtering of the animals from which they are obtained; and imperfect preser vation, whether this be by means of freezing, canning, salting, or smoking, plays its part in this, merely because it imperfectly counteracts the putrefactive process: i.e., the formation of toxins. We have also seen that infection can also be due to disease of the animals or to infection of the meat before ingestion.
All these features are to be considered simultaneously when prophylactic meas ures arc to be instituted.
—In Paris the seizure of meat is considered justified and is made (1) when deprived of all edible qualities; (2) when its ingestion might be followed by injurious consequences; (3) when from some reason or other it has derived qualities rendering its taste repugnant. the first head comes the flesh of animals that have been killed too young, and of those that are either dropsical or cachectic; under the second, that of : animals affected with disease, such as fever, septicemia, anthrax, tuberculosis, etc. The signs which guide the inspec tor in condemning the flesh of cachectic animals are chiefly the wasted condition, the absence of fat about the omentum, and the lack of resistance in the muscu lar tissue. With regard to animals that have died of inflammatory diseases the signs are: 1. A general tarnished colora tion, more or less deep red. 2. A capil lary injection of the fat, which in ex treme cases is penetrated deeply by it. 3. .Arborescent markings on and a tend ency to a livid coloration of the serous membranes. 4. A violet tint of the kid neys. 5. A brown or blackish coloration of the spongy bone, seen best in the ver tebr[e. G. Loss of firmness in the muscu lar tissue.