Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-01-17

NATURE or THE ramon (RolsoNl
NOW UNDERSTOOD THE
sclENTisTs, 81
Gained. Goods Safer Than cmnonly
supposed-Bacterial en- Eges In
Fish Meat and MIX Respd slble For
the Poisons.

custom to attribute any sudden and
otherwise u~nexplainable lodal epidemic
Of disease to ptomaine Ioisoning, 9
form Of bacterial action .v&Ty vaguely
understood by the average man and
only beginning to be REDUCED to exact
scientific knowledge by thelaccumulat-
ing Investigations of students Of bac-
teriology. The following interesting
article regarding this famous poison
was prepared for the Courier by a
Ottumwa physician from a
treatise by Prof. s. c. Prescott of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and published in a Boston paper:
ut is undoubtedly true that of all
articles Of food canned goods if prop
erly prepared, are about the safest
from the action of the bugs that
make the ptomaines.' Yet they have
long been popularity believed to be the
most dangerous. And the reason.
when one comes to think about it is
fairly obvious. The canned goods are
generally prepared from fresh material
used before there is opportunity for
decomposition to reach the danger
point and they are further freed from
danger of bacterial action by careful
sterilization. And if these safeguards
have proved inefficient as in rare in.
stances they do. there remains al
method by which the consume can tell
whether or not the contents of a given
can are perfectly Wholesome. All that
is necessary is to inspect the can and
if the busy bacteria are within, you
may be sure that they will have been
at work and their labor will produce
gases which in turn will have affected
the shape of the can. If it's ends bulge
ever so slightly don't buy it. But If
the ends of the can are concave, the
contents are quite safe and sane to
borrow the slogan of the recent cam
paign orators. Once the can is opened
however, the contents are as subject
to bacterial attack as any other food
product would be, and must be kept
as carefully.
This whole subject, according to
Professor s. G.. Prescott of the depart
ment Of Industrial biology at the Mas
s~achusetts Institute of Technology is
now much better understood by the ex-
perts than formerly and the main fea-
lures OF 1t can easily be made intelli-
gible to the man in the street. For a
long time after the ptomaines or pois-
onous substances were first discovered
it was imagined that they were them
selves a form of bacteria, But it is
now well known that they are simply
poisonous substances produced by the
combined, action of hundreds of minute
organisms-the ~so-called 'putrefying"
Bacteria on the food products eaten BY
all kinds of humanity except the Q
tarians. The ptomaines are, therefore
practically as many in number as the
different animal food products-but all
alike In their power to make trouble for
humanity. All are alike, also in that
they induce evils which are prevent
able. One important reason, for ex-
annie, why pork has attained $50 .,In-
enviahle q reputation. Tor u unwhole,
some qualities is due MOTTO the. per.
sonal habits Of Mr.. Pig but to the care
less way in which he has been han
died while being Transformed into sau-
sages. The subject therefore, is obyi-
ously n OF vital Importance to hui
man well being-so much SO chat it not
only absorbs the attention of many in
diy1dual scientists, but has become Of
late years an important part of the
psychological work of such an insti-
tuition as the Massachusetts Institute
OF Technology, where. not only instruc-
tors but also advanced students are
constantly working along specific lines
OF individual research. And 1T is ow-
ing TO suchtresearches, the world over,
that ptomaine poisoning is losing it's
terror in proportion as it is made more
n more unlikely by scientific meth
DDS IN the preparation of food pro-
ducts.
The name ptomaine has a rather
startling significance, going back to
Ahe Greek word for corpse, the first
ptomaines having been discovered in
dead bodies. The name was suggested
In the early eighties by an Italian sci.
entlst, some years after the first exact
knowledge had been obtained of what
the substance actually was that for
centuries had been causing such dis
astrous results to the human beings
VINO accidentally came in contact with
u. AS long ago as the time of the
ancient Hebrews, the danger Of this
KIND Of poisoning had been recognized
although the cause was neither sus-
pected nor sought after. One may still
read in Deuteronomy the command:
'Ye shall not eat anything that dieth
OF Itself; thou shalt give 1t to the
stranger that is in thy gates, that he
may eat Of (which is a direct in
Junction to avoid ptomafnes, although
1t hardly reflects much credit on the
hospitality of the ancient Hebrews.
The first experimental study, how
ever, of the effect produced upon ami
mails by the eating of unwhoIesome
flesh, was carried on only a hundred
years ago, when the famous physiolo-
glst, Albert Won Halter, began the pres
ent widespread work in one of the most
infinitely difficult of all scientific re-
searches, and although already 1t is
said that the time is not far distant
when the danger Of ptomaine poison
Ing, with its centuries long list of I'M
~suspecting victims, will be altogether
abolished, there still remains from a
scientific point of view a wide field of
investigation for the labors Of future
generations of scientists.