Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Instances of poisoning from the eating of canned meats have become
quite common. Although it may be possible that in some instances the
ill effects result from metallic poisoning, in a great majority of
cases the poisonous substances are formed by putrefactive changes. In
many cases it is probable that decomposition begins after the can has
been opened by the consumer; in others the canning is imperfectly done,
and putrefaction is far advanced before the food reaches the consumer.
In still other instances the meat may have been taken from diseased
animals, or it may have undergone putrefactive changes before the
canning. It should always be remembered that canned meat is especially
liable to putrefactive changes after the can has been opened, and when
the contents of the open can are not consumed at once the remainder
should be kept in a cold place or should be thrown away. People are
especially careless on this point. While every one knows that fresh
meat should be kept in a cold place during the summer, an open can of
meat is often allowed to stand at summer temperature and its contents
eaten hours after the can has been opened. This is not safe, and has
caused several outbreaks of meat poisoning that have come under the
observation of the writer.
MILK POISONING.--In discussing this form of food poisoning we will
exclude any consideration of the distribution of the specific
infectious diseases through milk as the carrier of the infection,
and will confine ourselves to that form of milk poisoning which is
due to infection with nonspecific, poison-producing germs. Infants
are highly susceptible to the action of the galactotoxicons (milk
poisons). There can no longer be any doubt that these poisons are
largely responsible for much of the infantile mortality which is
alarmingly high in all parts of the world. It has been positively shown
that the summer diarrhoea of infancy is due to milk poisoning. The
diarrhoeas prevalent among infants during the summer months are not
due to a specific germ, but there are many bacteria that grow rapidly
in milk and form poisons which induce vomiting and purging, and may
cause death. These diseases occur almost exclusively among children
artificially fed. It is true that there are differences in chemical
composition between the milk of woman and that of the cow, but these
variations in percentage of proteids, fats, and carbohydrates are of
less importance than the infection of milk with harmful bacteria. The
child that takes its food exclusively from the breast of a healthy
mother obtains a food that is free from poisonous bacteria, while the
bottle-fed child may take into its body with its food a great number
and variety of germs, some of which may be quite deadly in their
effects. The diarrhoeas of infancy are practically confined to the
hot months, because a high temperature is essential to the growth and
wide distribution of the poison-producing bacteria. Furthermore, during
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