ness caused by sausage-poison; of this number, one hundred and fifty terminated fatally. Cases where cheese was the cause of poisoning are also on record; the symptoms in these instances were those of typhus fever. The plague-like epidemic which occurred some time ago in the Volga district, and spread terror throughout Europe, was traced and ascribed to the diet of the population in those regions, which consisted almost exclusively of fish. Illness resulting from the eating of food that has spoiled is of so common occurrence that many will be able to recall instances of it from among the circle of their own friends and acquaintances.
Animal food that has entered into decomposition may generally be distinguished from fresh food by its presence proving unpleasant to the eye and nose. In fact, the nose may be considered as a sort of guardian of safety, for, generally speaking, whatever proves disagreeable to the sense of smell is injurious to the system. However, an ill-advised economy often causes these warnings to be not heeded; and among the lower classes we sometimes meet with so great an indifference, the result of habit, as to such indications, that frequently no distinction is made between food in a state of good preservation and that having a bad odor. To this circumstance must be ascribed the fact that diseases resulting from the poisons of putrefaction are of relatively much more frequent occurrence among the poorer ranks.
Cases of poisoning by food have, however, also been noted where no warning was given by the sense of smell. The explanation of this must be sought in the fact that the pure poisons of putrefaction are odorless compounds, and may probably occur without necessitating—at least, in any perceptible degree—the formation of products of decomposition which possess a strong odor.
The Danish scientist, Panum, had already ascertained that the poison of putrefaction is not destroyed by boiling. G. O. Weber, Hammer, and Schwenninger, further inferred from their investigations that it is of a chemical nature. Brieger, however, was the first clearly to establish this; he has succeeded in preparing the poisons of putrefaction in a pure state, and has given an explanation of their chemistry. He mixed pure white of egg with the juice from the stomach of a pig freshly killed, and allowed the mixture to stand twenty-four hours at a temperature of blood-heat. By means of a rather complex chemical process he succeeded in obtaining pure a small quantity of a substance, a few drops of an aqueous solution of which were sufficient to kill frogs in fifteen minutes. Rabbits died in the same time after inoculation with a larger quantity. From this it must be inferred that a poisonous principle was formed from the white of egg when it was subjected to artificial digestion.
From putrid meat Brieger succeeded in preparing a substance, neuridine, which acted as a poison as long as it was contaminated with other products of putrefaction; but when obtained in a state of
