Cornevin knew of no case of poisoning in man, and considered that this
was probably because man (1) eats only the part poorest in the toxic
principle (see below), (2) does not eat the skin, (3) always cooks the
tubers, and (4) rarely subsists only on potatoes for a considerable
time. He found accidents among _animals_, however, not rare. In fact,
eliminating cases possibly due to changes caused by weather, cryptogams,
and ferments, he found poisonings every year unquestionably due to
Solanine, chiefly among cattle. Cows will eat the haulm without trouble
in times of scarcity of green fodder, but to the detriment of their
health if such feeding is prolonged.
Macfadyen showed some time since that old sprouted Potatoes, even after
boiling, are poisonous to horses. In 1896 eleven horses died from eating
in most instances small quantities of spoiled and somewhat sprouted
Potatoes, and two test-horses fed on the Potatoes died. In this case,
however, it was conjectured that the poison was probably some organic
substance generated by the bacteria or fungi growing on the Potatoes.
Chesnut and Wilcox (1901) recorded the death of six pigs due to eating
sprouted uncooked Potatoes; after cooking the potatoes did not cause
poisoning. With sufficient boiling most of the poison appears to remain
behind in the water and might be thrown away.
Cases of poisoning of stock by Potatoes appear to have occurred more or
less frequently in Germany. Two such cases were noted in the _Berliner
Tierärztliche Wochenschrift_ in 1909, in one of which 64 cows developed
symptoms of poisoning after being fed on a large quantity of raw tubers,
while in the other instance two cows became ill after eating Potato
parings—which, as shown below, contain more Solanine than the “flesh.”
In the case of two children who died, F. W. Stoddart, Public Analyst of
Bristol, after a post-mortem in one case, gave a very guarded opinion
that death was probably due to Solanine poisoning, due to eating raw
Potato peel, but was not confident. A most interesting case of severe
but not fatal poisoning is described in _The Lancet_ (1899). No less
than 56 soldiers in Berlin were badly affected, until the supply of
Potatoes was stopped, but the men recovered.
Pammel (1911) states that some persons cannot eat Potatoes because
poisonous to them, but such persons must be extremely rare, and
hypersensitive to minimum quantities of Solanine, which is almost if not
quite absent in the “flesh” of Potatoes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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