Abstract
Numerous observations indicate that staphylococci are frequently present in cases of food poisoning. It is often difficult, however, to determine whether or not this organism is the etiological agent. The studies of Jordan and McBroom, 1 Woolpert and Dack, 2 and Dolman, Wilson and Cockcroft, 3 suggest that toxin produced by staphylococci is responsible for the clinical symptoms. Little is known about the pathological lesions in cases of food poisoning resulting from staphylococci because only one death has been reported. 4
Dolman and his associates 3 published a method by which they could determine whether or not the staphylococcus found in the food in cases of poisoning is the etiological agent. Furthermore, with this test they showed that the gastro-intestinal fraction in staphylococcal toxin was not destroyed by heat for 20 minutes at 100°C. The thermolability of this fraction is very different from that of the hemolysin, leucocidin and skin-necrotizing fractions. The technic of this test consists in injecting intraäbdominally into kittens toxin prepared from the cultures of staphylococci. If the animal shows marked lassitude and weakness, with unsteadines which appears shortly after the injection and if these symptoms culminate in the first of a series of intermittent paroxysms of vomiting, associated with diarrhea, then the toxin contains a gastrointestinal poison.
Stone 5 has recently suggested a bacteriological method for distinguishing staphylococci that produce a gastro-intestinal toxin. The results of Dolman and his associates differ from those of Stone.
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