=Food Poisoning=
_Food Containing Bacterial Poisons Resulting from Putrefaction; Food
Infected with Disease Germs; Food Containing Parasites--Tapeworm--
Trichiniasis--Potato Poisoning._
=FOOD POISONING.=--Much the same symptoms from all meats, fish,
shellfish, milk, cheese, ice cream, and vegetables; namely, vomiting,
cramps, diarrhea, headache, prostration, weak pulse, cold hands and
feet, possibly an eruption.
_First Aid Rule 1.--Rid patient of poison. Cause repeated vomiting by
giving three or four glasses of warm water, each containing half a
level teaspoonful of mustard. Put finger down throat to assist. Empty
bowels by giving warm injection of soapsuds and water by fountain
syringe._
_Rule 2.--Support heart and rally nerve force. Give teaspoonful of
whisky in tablespoonful of hot water every half hour, as needed. Put
hot-water bottles at feet and about body._
=Conditions, Etc.=--Bacterial poisons, constituting irritants of the
stomach and bowels, are found in certain mussels, oysters from
artificial beds, eels out of stagnant ditches--as well as the uncooked
blood of the common river eel--certain fish at all times, certain fish
when spawning, putrefied fish, fermented canned fish, sausages of
which the ingredients have putrefied, putrefied meat, imperfectly
cured bacon, putrefied cheese, milk improperly handled and not cooled
before being transported, ice cream which fermented before freezing,
or ice cream containing putrid gelatin, and mouldy corn meal and the
bread made from it.
These poisons are called toxins, or toxalbumins, or bacterial
proteids. They are no longer called ptomaines, because many ptomaines
are not poisonous. They are formed within the cells of the bacteria,
and result from the combination of certain constituents of the food
material that nourishes the bacteria, in some way not quite
understood. Some decomposition must have taken place in the food
before it can furnish to the bacteria the nourishment it needs. If
this has happened, the bacteria multiply rapidly, and the toxins that
are formed are taken up by the lymphatics and carried away from the
tissues as fast as possible. But so great is their virulence that they
act on several vital organs before they can be antagonized by the
natural elements of the blood.
=Symptoms.=--The symptoms are much the same in all the cases of
bacterial poisoning mentioned. Sudden and violent vomiting and
diarrhea appear a few hours after eating the spoiled food, or may be
delayed. There may be headache, colic, and cramps in the muscles.
Marked prostration and weak pulse with cold hands and feet are
characteristic. The appearance of skin eruptions is not uncommon. The
occurrence of such symptoms in several persons, some hours after
partaking of the same food, is sufficient to warrant one in
pronouncing the trouble food poisoning.
=Treatment.=--The objects of treatment are to rid the patient of the
poison, and to stimulate the heart and general circulation, and draw
on the reserve nerve force. It is best to procure medical aid to wash
out the stomach, but when this is impossible, the patient should be
encouraged to swallow plenty of tepid water and then vomit it. If
there is no natural inclination to do so, vomiting may be brought
about by putting the finger in the back of the throat. The same
process should be repeated a number of times, and the result will be
almost as good as though a physician had used a stomach tube. A
teaspoonful of salt or tablespoonful of mustard in the water will
hasten its rejection. Then the bowels should likewise be emptied. If
vomiting continues this will not be possible by means of drugs given
by the mouth, although calomel may be retained given in half-grain
tablets hourly to an adult, until the bowels begin to move, or till
eight to ten tablets are taken. When vomiting is excessive, emptying
of the bowels may be brought about quickly by giving warm injections
of soapsuds into the bowel with a fountain syringe. Brandy or whisky
in teaspoonful doses given in a tablespoonful of hot water at
half-hour intervals should follow the emptying of the stomach and
bowels, and the patient must be kept quiet. He must also be kept warm
by means of hot-water bags and blankets.
=INFECTED FOOD.=--A frequent source of illness is infection by disease
germs transmitted in food. The meat of animals slaughtered when sick
with abscess, pneumonia, kidney disease, diarrhea, or anthrax
(malignant pustule) carries disease germs and causes serious illness;
so does the meat of animals killed after recent birth of their young,
and probably having fever. Oysters may be contaminated with excrement
from typhoid patients, and may then transmit the disease to those who
eat them.
Milk from diseased animals, or contaminated with germs of typhoid
fever, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, etc., is apt to cause
the same disease in the human being who drinks it.
If such infected food is eaten raw, the diseases with which it is
contaminated may be transmitted. If subjected to cooking at a
temperature of at least the boiling point, comparative safety is
secured; but the toxins accompanying the disease germs in the infected
food are not as a rule rendered harmless. Treatment must be directed
to each disease thus transmitted.
Poisoning resulting from eating canned meats has sometimes been
attributed to supposed traces of tin, zinc, or solder, which have
become dissolved in the fluids of the meat, but in the vast majority
of cases such poisoning is due to toxins accompanying the germs of
putrefaction, the meats having been unfit for canning at the outset.
In such cases the symptoms are the same as in other food poisoning,
and the treatment must be such as is elsewhere directed (see pp. 147
and 149).
While human breast milk is germ free, the cows' milk sold in cities is
a very common source of disease. Scrupulous care of the cows, of the
clothing and hands of the milkers, of the stables at which the herds
are quartered, and of the cans, pails, and pans used, reduces to a
minimum the amount of filth and impurity otherwise mixed with milk. In
the household, as well as during transportation, milk should be kept
cool, with ice if necessary. It should also never be left uncovered,
for it readily absorbs gases, effluvia, and contaminating substances
in the air, and affords an excellent medium for the growth and
propagation of germs. When partially or entirely soured, it should not
be used, except in the preparation of articles of food by cooking, as
directed in cook books. It should never be used if there is any doubt
about its purity. Unless all doubt has been removed, it is best to
subject milk intended for children's consumption to a temperature of
160 deg. F. for ten minutes, and then put it on the ice, especially during
hot weather. Germs are thus rendered harmless, and the nourishing
qualities of the milk remain unimpaired.
Summer diarrhea of children, also called cholera infantum, occurs as
an epidemic in almost all large cities during the hottest days of
summer. The disease is largely fatal, especially during the first hot
month, because the most susceptible and tender children are the first
affected. It is due to the absorption into the systems of these
children of the toxins formed during the putrefying of milk in the
stomachs and bowels of the little sufferers. Clean, pure sweet milk,
free from bacteria should be used to prevent the occurrence of this
disease. Its treatment is outlined in Vol. III. Exactly what bacteria
cause the disease is not decided. Possibly the milk is infected, but
probably the poisonous results come from toxins.
=FOOD CONTAINING PARASITES.=--The parasites found in food in this
country are echinococcus, guineaworm, hookworm, trichina, and
tapeworm. Echinococcus cannot be understood or diagnosed by the
layman. Guineaworm is excessively rare in the United States; it gains
access into the body through drinking water which contains the
individuals. Hookworm is the cause of "miners' anaemia," and is
extremely rare in this country.
The entrance of living food parasites can be absolutely prevented by
thorough cooking of meats, especially pork and beef. Heat destroys the
"measles" and the trichina worms.
=TAPEWORM.=--This is developed in man after eating "measly" beef or
pork. "Measles" are embryo tapeworms called, from their appearance,
"bladder worms." In from six to ten weeks after being received into
the intestine of a man, these bladder worms become full grown, and
measure from ten to thirty feet in length--the tapeworms.
=Symptoms.=--Vertigo, impairment of sight and of hearing, itching of
the nose, salivation, loss of appetite, dyspepsia, emaciation, colic,
palpitation of the heart, and sometimes fainting accompany the
presence of the tapeworm. Generally the condition becomes known
through the passage in the excrement of small sections of the worm.
These sections resemble flat portions of macaroni.
=Treatment.=--This, to be successful, must be directed by a physician.
When no physician can be procured, the patient may attempt his own
relief. After fasting for twenty-four hours, pumpkin seed, from which
the outer coverings have been removed by crushing, are soaked
overnight in water and taken on an empty stomach in the morning; a
child takes one or two ounces thoroughly mashed and mixed with sirup
or honey, and an adult four ounces (see Vol. III, p. 245).
=TRICHINIASIS.=--This is a dangerous disease caused by the presence in
the muscles and other tissues of the trichinae, little worms which are
swallowed in raw or partly cooked pork, ham, or bacon. Nausea,
vomiting, colic, and diarrhea appear early, generally on the second
day after eating the infected meat. Later, stiffness of the muscles
occurs, with great tenderness, swelling of the face and of the
extremities, sweating, hoarseness, difficult breathing, inability to
sleep, bronchitis, and pneumonia.
There is no treatment for the disease. Many cases which are not fatal
are probably considered to be obscure rheumatism. Many cases of
pneumonia are caused by the worm.
=POTATO POISONING.=--There remains one variety of food poisoning which
needs mention, since it occurs when least expected, and when proper
food has been subjected to natural growth. As the potato belongs to
the botanical family containing the dangerous belladonna, tobacco,
hyoscyamus, and stramonium, it is not surprising that is should also
contain a powerful poisonous alkaloid, namely, solanine. Solanine is
developed in potatoes, especially during their sprouting stage.
Violent vomiting and diarrhea and inflammation of the stomach and
bowels are caused by it. Careful peeling of sprouting potatoes, and
removal of their eyes, will lessen, if not wholly obviate, the danger
from eating them. This form of food poisoning is rare.