A MEDICAL MYTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4441, 17 July 1922, Page 2

A MEDICAL MYTH.

• —■ — “LONG-SUFFERING PTOMAINES.” SCIENTIST IN DEFENCE. “It is high time that justice was done the long-suffering ptomaines. For eighty years or more they have been made to bear, quite unjustly, the burden o;. responsibility flor food-pois-oning outbreaks,writes Frank I. Healy in the “Scientific American.” “The history of the origin of the ptomaine theory of food poisoning provides a typical example of the fallacy of hasy generalisation based on insufficient data. Certain scientists found in the early part of the nineteenth century .that the injection pf wa’.erv extracts of putrefying meat into the veins of various animals frequently produced death. They succeeded in isolating from putrid meat many chemical compounds, which they found to be highly poisonous ip animals by inoculation into their veins. On .account of their chemical similarity these substances were grouped together and called ptomaines. On the basis of. these experiments the generalisation was made that the ptomaines were responsible not only for the harmfulness of tainted meat, but for food poisoning in general. And even to-day, in spite of the existence of readily available evidence to prove the fallacy of this explanation, it is accepted as adequate by many medical men. “It cannot be too emphatically stated that the ptomaine theory has been definitely proved to be without scientific foundation as an explanation of food poisoning; and the reasons follow : In the first place, in most cases of food poisoning outbreaks, the food at the time of eating shows no signs of putrefaction, and is in no way offensive to the sense of .tiiste or smell. “Furthermore, the general toxicity of ptomaines has been exaggerated.“While the ptomaine theory still enjoyed wide acceptance there grew up with it another conception, based on the assumption that the food before eating became contaminated with bacterial capable of producing poisonous substances, known as toxips. “The first important investigation in which a casual connection was established between a definite bacteriuri and a case of food poisoning was carried out by Gaertner in 1888. At Fiankenliussen a cow suffering from enteritis was killed. The flesh of the cow, which appeared quite normal, was consumed by several people, who fell ill with the usual symptoms of food poisoning—severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, followed by prostration. One of those affected died Gaertner succeeded in isolating bacibus enteritis both from the fatal case and from the organs of the cow. Since that date this bacillus, or a bacillus closely related to it, has been isolated from a large number of food poisoning outbreaks, and the responsibility of this group of organisism, known as the Gaertner or Salmonella group, for the great majority of food poisoning outbreaks has been definitely established. “The question naturally presents itself: How, then, does food become contaminated with the bacillus whose toxin is the direct cause of most poisoning outbreaks ? In a certain number of cases the source >3 straightforward, the vehicle being meat or milk derived from an Animal suffering from a disease caused by one or another of the members of the Gaertner group. In other cases the most probable source of infection •seems to be animals or insects which ha v e the opportunity ofl contaminating human food. 'in support of this contention it may be mentioned that Dr. Milton J. Rosenau, professor of preventive medicine at Harvard Medical School, at a conference of State health office's held at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. in November, 1920, asserted that, after three years of experimentation at Bcston it had been found that ptomaine poisoning as such does not exist, but that food poisoning, in the modern sense of the word, is due chiefly to infection of food by disease carriers.

‘■lt has been found that rats and mice are susceptible to diseases carried by bacilli of the Gaertner group. Particularly worthy pf mention ?s mouse typhoid.

“There only remains, in conclusion, to outline a few pf the means which may be employed to, combat the bac-i teria, infection ofl food, and food jibisonlng outbreaks resulting fijoin it. Tn the fl’st place, the medical profession should take a greater interest in this subject and discard once and for all, the discredited ptomaine theory. Tn the second place, great care should be taken to locate food-preparing plants outside the slaughterhouse and at a considerable distance from .it. Furthermore a high standard of cleanliness should be enforced wherever prepared meat foods are made, since these lend themselves most readily as vehicles of infection. Fna’ily, the classic warning, of course, remains unchanged: ‘Swat the fly.' ”