PTOMAINE POISONING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1372, 6 February 1905, Page 2

PTOMAINE POISONING.

HEALTH OFFICER’S OPINION.

[(Ear Press (Association.);

Wellington, last nigh:

Conversing with an officer of the Health Department over the ptomaine poisoning cases in Dunedin, a Post reporter asked if there was any simple antidote or remedy for general and immediate use in cases of ptomaine poisoniDg, and was assured that there was not. The symptoms were those of gastric enteritis, and a layman could not be sure whether the cause was ptomaine poisoning or something else. The best thing to do was to get medical aid as soon as possible. “ If there is not an antidote, what about prevention ?” The answer to this questiop was that tho best prevention wbb to avoid as far as possible eating tinned meat that had been opened for any length of time, and to observe tho ordinary rules of oleanliness and sanitation. As a rule the decomposition in tinned meat that caused the trouble took place after the tin bad boon opened, and was not tho fault of tho manufacturer ; but he had known cases of ptomaine poisoning arising from meat that had been just opened. Cases had been known to arise from eating sholl-fish, mussels, and at times oysters. Ham, at a wedding feast, fatally affected several persons, and there had been some cases arising from milk, cheese, and butter, particularly when the dairy was within reach of the emanations of a drain. It was not an uncommon thing in this country to see a safe j right over an open drain. I “Is ptomaino poisoning on tho increase ?”

“ I don’t think so ; rather the reverse. There may appear to be more of it, because it is only in later years it been recognised. Cases before that probably passed unnoticed,”