PTOMAINE POISONING.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 202, 26 August 1919, Page 10

PTOMAINE POISONING.

AN AMERICAN INVESTIGATION. "It is becoming increasingly clear to us that there "is no such thing as 'ptomaine' poisoning, and that canned foods -have a clean bill of health. They I I are, in fact, the safest foods that come I j to our table." | Jn these words Dr. M. J. Roeenau, of I Harvard University Medical School, De- j partment of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene, sums up the result of more : than two years' careful investigation into the subject oi "ptomaine poieoning," so called —a study which undertaken for the purpose of deciding, once and for all, whether there was ever any foundation for the on: , idea that canned foods could ca.use disease. j Dr. Roeenau, recognised internationally ! oe the leading authority on the subject, jheaded the investigation board, nnd i'roj lessor John Weinzirl, Dr. Iv W. Uheyney, I Dr. \V. K. Brown, Dr. R. N. Atwater, Dr. j I). L. Sisco, nnd other eminent medical j men were placed in charge ot various I phases of the work. '"We have studied lover 51 outbreaks of so-called "ptomaine" poisoning, involving 1,500 persons and ■causing three deaths," said Dr. Koscnau in his rejfort. "We have industriously looked for cu&es, and have made a. special attempt to discover the cause of all illness attributed to food. This part ot our work has brought out many curious 'instances. One outbreak of 'ptomaine' imisoning wis in fact dysentery; another ivae sunstroke; another was due to saltpetre put in the nugar in one of the military training cam-pa; and a fourth was oxalic acid poieoning, As an adjunct to its extensive lal>onitory experiments, the boar\l of experts in charge of this investigation started a luncheon club over a year ago, and tho I investigating physicians were themsejvee I served every day with canned fowls, the henlfchfulness of which had been questioned. Careful notes of any effects were. made, but not the slightest symptoms of '"ptomaine" were over discovered. Reviewing Dr. Rosenau's report editorially in its May iesue, "The lkwton Mcdi-

caJ and Surjrical Journal" points out that of i'he thousands of cases of supposed "ptomaine" poisoning investigated in recent years, in not a single instance hae the diagnosis been based upon facte.. In short, the consensus of opinion seems to be that there is no suoh thing as "ptomaine" poisoning—certainly that canned foods are not and cannot be ! responsible for it. I