The Portland daily press., 1898-04-26

Friday and sold half Of 1t TO announcer
butcher. The latter sold his half to a
| LARGE nun,ber of customers. VINO ate 1T
| on Monday and Tuesday, and seventy
people were made violently Ill by the
meat. 1t was made into sausage, L be-.
lieve. Eight died. me pollce neard OF
this. and forbade further sale of the
noisonad meat. Butcher No. !, who still
had his sausages on hand, determined not
to waste them, and concluded to feed
them to his family and himself. On
Wednesday, they ate of the meat and were
| not made in the least degree ILL.,
1--WE often hear in the summer, for in
stance. that large numbers of persons
have been stricken down at a picnic.
Generally the fact is developed that only
| those who ate certain meat or ice cream
were poisoned. In the noted case at
Wappinger's Falls the wholesale poison
| ing was said by some to he due to tainted
ham; others claimed that it came from
the copper cooking vessels. Copper has
ries, sand there is no authenticated case
| of copper poisoning on record However.
! the process which ends in the production
of ptomalne poison can be started by IN
clean vessels. as well as in disease and
changes in temperature Housekeepers
| cannot be too careful about seeing that
| all cooking utensils and receptacles for
| Old country women believe that thunder
sours milk. 1t isn't the thunder that does
| it, but the sudden change in temperature
which comes with thunderstorm. 1t is
most necessary to keep, milk, meats,
and even vegetables and fruits at an even
temperature, for thus is the danger of
| generating ptomaines lessened.
eve rarely bear of tyrotoxicon or
cheese poison, and yet cheese. as 1 stated,
is full OF ptomaines. Many persons who
eat rich cheeses suffer from indigestion,
which 1s frequently mild form of to-
maine poisoning, but it passes away be-
cause the organs are in healthy cond1-
ton. and there is sufficient vitality to
resist the poison. The man who eats a
| piece of cheese runs just as much risk of
being attacked by ptomaines as he who
dimes on shad roe. And the girl who
takes her big dish of straw berries and
cream runs an equal risk. The race
would soon be extinct ifit was not for
I this force of vital resistance.
| "Ptomaines frequently develop in cat
tie before they are slaughtered. Cows
that are driven a long distance or are
| crowded together and boxed up in cars.
without food or water, for days at a time,
are very apt to devslop them. The same
is true of human beings. When man or
woman is overworked-or, better, over
worried, for few are overworked-and
l
session of the body alkaloids are forming
there. Whether the person falls ill or
gets better depends on the amount and
strength of the vital resistance.
| appetite is the sentinel for digestion.
If any food gives the proper countersign
to the appetite let 1t pass along the line.
If you want thing to eat, no matter
when or how or where, eat it, for it
won't hurt you. Nobody ever dies from
eating. 1t is almost impossibls to eat too
much and be comfortable afterward
Even the smallest child knows when to
quit. Indigestion warns us all. There
is great deal more scarce than actual
scientific knowledge about ptomaine poi
soning. Few ptoDlaines have been iso-
lated by chemical tests. and there may
be hundreds yet to be discovered and sep
arated. In the meantime we need not be
so curious as to what they are so long as
we can take our hung beef shad roe and
cheese with relish. Our parents got
along very well with the ptomaines and
why shouldn't we? Let US keep we'll and
take our chances; there is nothing to
fear. The only things to do are to obey
the dictates of healthy and normal ap-
petite, to secure properly cared for food
and to prepare it properly in absolutely
clean vessels. A great many ptomaines
are destroyed by heat. They are Gecom-
posed and split up into other products.
Slightly tainted meat, for example, is
robbed of its evil effects by cooking. Let
i us keep our general health up to high
standard by right thinking right doing
right living, and so constantly recharge
our store of vital resistance that we can
defy ptolnaines. There is more danger in
the curiosity that centres about this sub
Ject than there is in ptomaine poisoning. u
/