The Portland daily press., 1898-04-26
DON'T FEAR THE PTOMAINE.

"o' Ian The PTUMAlNEs
He's Not Altogether a Rad Fellow,
Says DIR. Shrady.
Little Danger of His Hurting You Unless
Something's Already Wrong With
Your Health and He Will Even Help
Your Observation-Disclosures Eaten at Ey
cry Meal, Too.
(New York Snu.)
People needn't be SO afraid of ptomaine
poisoning. Talk about every mans hay.
ing to eat his peck of dirt in his lifetime
His share of ptonaines is a great deal
moro than peck, and eat them he must
almost every meal There are ptomaines
and ptomaines, and some of them are &C.
tually fattening and strengthening, for
they make food more digestible and nu-
tritious. So it will be seen that there is
no occasion for the alarm that has been
excited recently by the reports that vari-
GUS persons, including Anton Seidl, have
died of ptomaine poisoning. DR.. George
E. Shrady laughs at the very suggestion
of people being afraid of ptolnaines. He
believes that the law of chance holds
good in the matter of eating just as it
does in everything else in life; that a
man has to risk being poisoned by pto-
maines every time he sits down to
meal, just as he risks life or limb every
time he rides in a cable car. When asked
said:
"Ptomaine is generic term for aka
loid bodies formed from animal and veg
etable tissues after putrefaction sets in
and similar bodies produced by pathogen-
ic bacteria. The word comes from the
Greek word 'ptoma, which means a
corpse. Most of the putrefaotion changes
to which ptomaines are due occur in dead
bodies, but they also occur in living
bodies. Some alkaloids are very poison
Gus; some less SO, and others not at all.
"Just as soon as nutrition stops in an
organic or inorganic substance putrefac-
ton sets in. AS soon as flower or yege-
table is plucked it begins to decay; as
soon as flesh, fish or fowl is dead putre-
faction begins. So you see it is impos-
sible to avoid the consumption of pto-
maines. We take in great many poi
sons in our food without knowing it,
fortunately for our peace of mind. We
eat lot of tainted meats without ever
suspecting that they are not perfectly
fresh, and every man who enjoys piece
of cheese gets certain amount of poi
son, for cheese is full of ptomaines. In
truth, the richer the cheese the more pto-
maines it contains. From this one can
readily see how impossible it is to avoid
this bugaboo of ptomaine poisoning if we
look at it in the abstract.
"Science does not deny that this poi
soning is fatal. Gases whsre death has
resulted show the inability Of the system
to eliminate the poison rather than the
direct action of the poison itself. Take
the case of the noted musician, Anton
Seidl. Why was his wife not poisoned
also, for she ate of the shad roe which
was supposed to have killed him? 1t hap
were affected by other ailments and the
! poison could not be thrown off. Nature
protects her children from poisons CON
sumed with food by eliminating them
through the kidneys, liver, intestines and
skin. This is clearly shown in cases of
cholera morbus, due to eating food un-
dergoing putrefaction. Severe vomiting,
the symptoms, and all show the stupen-
dous efforts rat Ire makes to eliminate
the poisons.
"Some foods are better mediums for the
| transference of ptomaine poison to HUI
man beings than others. Again, certain
foods poison certain people. Some per-
sons cannot eat fish, some Strawberries.
others cucumbers, and so on, but this
rather shows an individual weakness.
Perhaps the skin cannot do it's work in
eliminating it's share of the poison. and
40 fish or berries cause some people TO
have an emption of the skin. In almost
all cases of ptomaine poisiniDg it is found
that the eliminating organs. pal tcular'y,
the kidneys, are the real source of
trouble. Certain ptomaines belong to 81
healthful body which the kidneys and
intestines eliminate. If these remain in
the blood through the failure of these or.
gans to get rid of them they will poison
assure as dose of arsenic. Then, too,
certain ptomaines are necessary for the
digestive process, and even the nutrIt1ve
process. These start fermentation by al
tering the conditions of certain complex
bodies by splitting them up into simpler
compounds, making the food more east
ly digested and nutritious. So you see
ptomaines have their good as we'll as
their bad points.
'Nature protects us from some of the
most poisonous foods by creating dis
gust for their taste or odor or both. She
guards her animals in the same way.
They avoid eating poisonous plants be-
cause they have an instructive distaste
for them; Nature is not going to allow
her family to be decimated by shad roe,
oysters, ice cream or anything else. Or
binary food is not liable to get ptomaines
where proper care is taken of it. Where
food is frozen, thawed out, and frozen
again it is very dangerous. Cold storage
is responsible for many ptomaines. We
eat chickens that have been kept in cold
storage a year, and put there without
having had the intestines removed at
that. Think of it These are hung up
in the market. We buy them and eat
them, and nature eliminates the poisons
that they convey to the human system.
HThis is one of the dreadful penalties