The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-07-24
Pomaiines
BY JANE EDDINGTor.

1t Is highly dangerous experiment
to eat any defective food. Meat In
summer may have deadly defect
which can neither be seen with the ego
nor tasted when 1t Is cooked, but when
1t is obviously high" there Ia no valid
excuse for eating It,
Goodness alone is not sufficient for
the Keeping OF meat OF any OF tho
nitrogenous foods. The air In an ice
box should also be dry and fresh In
stead of moist and stagnant. IL II IL
to bc safe place for a piece of meat
The best iceboxes have glass sides, be-
cause darkness is favorable TO tn.
development OF certain deadly bacteria.
There is no season OF the year when
foods become SO quickly defective as
during the last OF July and for tho
first three weeks OF August, but news
items even in June began to tell OF
illness from ptomaines, and tho next
day after the Fourth of July there
vas recorded the death Of n man with
In an hour or two after eating a restau-
rant dinner.
This Is the season OF the year to for
get all about the economy OF leftovers.
N-hour loftovers may be all right but
foods made from eggs that are or the
fresh, from milk that may not have
been sterilized. may in a few hours
develop bacteria enough to make every
eater OF them sick, slightly or SER
iously.
Canned goods which may be perfect
" cafe to eat when they are opened
may in twelve hours have so changed
in character. even in refrigerator. as
10 DO totally Npnsate food. Canned
salmon. after standing forty-eight
hours. has caused most serious pto-
maine poisoning.
This IS tho time of year when
squares OF sterile cheese cloth III
abundance should be ready for Kitchen
he
wiped on a soiled towel. and 4 potato
salad has been known to poison all
who ate IT, undoubtedly because it was
made BY ono whose hands were un-
When people lived in the forest. sur-
rounded BY wild beasts Of as secrctive
Ina bits as those of the modern germ,
they had wisdom enough TO take the
necessary prccaution to save their lives.
People OF to-day seem 10 resent bitter
ly the necessity of taking precautions
not dissimilar TO those which their an
cestors were obliged to take This
greater the population the greater tbs
multiplication of bacterial or germ
life. and the greater the necessity OF
learning all the new forms of clean
illness and sanitation.
The dreadful thing about ptomaines
is that 1t is dead animal life. and
dead flesh, even of microscopic size,
"ptoma" Is Creek: the English equiva-
lent Is Corpse"
Ptomaines are only one of tho food
polsons. and the best authorities cay
that they result only from bacterial
action on heterogeneous substances. such
as meats. eggs, fish, cheese
II is not definitely decided. perhaps.
whether bacteria start decay in meat
or decay starts the bacteria. But at
any rate. ptomaines arc the product.
and there is nothing uncertain about
what they can do.
It is claimed that II mans digestive
tube Is In perfectly sound condition he
can cat with impunity the meat Of
animals with infectious diseases, II II
is we'll cooked. apd even putrefed meat.
But 1t is a dangerous experiment. and
II mysterious diseases could be traced
to their origin, 1t would probably be
found that the defective food eaten a
year back had been tho cause Of to-
days fatality.