The Washington times., 1919-11-30

Spindle Shaped Spore Bearing
Bscilli, and the Numerous Spores.
From Rockefeller Institute Monograph
on Botulism, Ly DIR. E. c. Dickson.
TT was at her town house in Detroit.
that Mrs. Murray w. Sales, prominent
= society matron of that city, gave a
formal dinner to some of her fashionable
friends. Covers were laid for eight, in
cluding Mrs. Sales and her husband. Bot
tied ripe olives were among the hors
d'oeuyres served that evening and some
of the same lot were placed before the
members of the family on Sunday and
Monday. following Saturday nights more
elaborate affair.
Five who ate those olives are now in
their graves-dead within a week. Two
others were desperately sick, but have not
died.
What killed them7 They were victims
Of a strange new food poison newly dis
covered and called botulism-a poison
produced by the recently identified bacillus
botulinus
They did not swallow germs which be-
gan to breed and poison them. The dead
ly poison was already all there on those
oliyes-a tasteless, odorless, invisible but
'frightfully potent poison. That is one Of
the strange things about this poison-the
microbe in the food makes the poison and
deposits it In the food 1t is not the microbe
that harms you; it is the poison It has
put in the food before You eat It.
It is a strange and uncanny germ. 1t
cannot live In the air; it does not thrive
give OF the poison in the warmth of
the body. The bacillus botulinus may be
eaten without danger. The germ lives.
brt IDS and creates ite poison in the sealed
oxygen.
Science knows no cure for this poison.
There is no way that the housewife nor
the guest can tell whether the poison
is in the food. But there are some things
which everybody ought to know and to
do to guard against this new food poison
which struck, with deadly effect, Mrs.
Saless dinner party.
Within twenty-four hours the victims be-
gan to be stricken. Medical specialists
diagnosed the illness correctly, but they
we're helpless-there was nothing they
could do.
Mrs. Sales's young daughter, Frances,
twenty-five years old, and her son, Leonard
A Sales, twelve, were among the victims.
Both had eaten the olives on Sunday and
Monday. The others who died were: A.
Gngersoll Lewis, a well-known Detroit cap
ltalist, who ate the olives the night of the
dinner; Mrs. H. CasseIl, who was called in
Saturday night to assist in serving. and
Julia Names, maid in the Sales residence.
Mrs. Sales and Mrs. Lewis were seriously
Ill, but recovered.
This distressing tragedy has served to
direct attention to the highly important
TACT that there exists to-day in canned and
bottled foods, especially of the home pre-
pared variety, and sometimes in the COM
mercial kind, more deadly health menace
than any form of food poisoning with
which We we're heretofore familiar.
Totally different in symptoms and far
more fatal in character than "ptomaine
poisoning" which Is of frequent occur
renee, this serious and seldom encountered
poisoning is one of which the public has
little, II any, knowledge either as to the
causes or symptoms or means Of preven-
tion. Cases may be much more common than
the records show. Few doctors know this
disease and many cases may have oc-
CURED which were, not recognized.
A person with great powers of resistance
may overcome the effects of slight pois-
oning, but The mortality percentage is very
high.
Even bite of infected food may almost
cause death. Here Is one case reported
In the Rockefeller Research report on
botulism:
"on July /, 1916, Mrs. W., of San Pas.
quale, near Escondido, California, noticed
that one OF number Of jars of string
beans, which she had canned two weeks
before, was leaking She tasted one of
the pods and noted that 1t was slightly
sharp and when she began to heat
them over she noticed that there was a
strong, disagreeable odor-' The contents
of the jar we're then thrown out.