PTOMAINE POISONING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11476, 6 February 1905, Page 5

PTOMAINE POISONING.

(Per United Press Association )

WELLINGTON, February 4.

Conversing with the Health Officer over, the ptomaine poisoning cases in Dunedin, an Evening" Post reporter asked if there was any simple antidote or remedy for general ptomainei poisoning, and was assured that there was not. The symptoms were those of gastro enteritis, and a layman could not be sure whether the cause was ptomaine poisoning or something else. The best thing to do was to get medical aid as soon as" possible. "If there is no antidote, what about prevention?" queried the reporter. The answer to this qriestion ' was that' the best prevention was to avoid, as far as possible, eating tinned meat that had been opened for any length of time, and to ohserve the ordinary rules of cleanliness and sanitation. As a rule, the decomposition' in tinned meat that caused trouble took' place after the- tin had been opened, and was not the fault of the manufacturer; but he had known cases of ptomaine .poisoning arising from meat that had just been 6pened. Cases had been known to arise from eatings shell fish, mussels, and at times -oysters. Ham .at a wedding feast fatally afflicted several persons, and there had been some cases arising from m'iik, cheese, and butter — particularly when the dairy was within reach of the emanations of a "drain. It was- not an unknown in this country to see a safe right over an open drain. Is ptomaine poisoning on the increase?" "I don't think so— rather the reverse. There may appear to be more of it becauso it is only in later years that/ it has been recognised. Cases before that probably passed unnoticed."