The bacteriology of food poisoning.

From the figures it would appear right to concentrate most attention upon salmonellas, staphylococci, and Clostridium welchii. It is necessary also to consider briefly other organisms known to cause food poisoning. Of these by far the most interesting, as well as the most deadly, is Clostridium botulinum, the organism that caused the tragic disaster at Loch Maree in August 1922, when all of eight patients affected died within a week of eating sandwiches containing a ‘wild duck‘ paste. Bacteria of the genus Shigella, responsible for one form of dysentery, are sometimes spread by food; and there are other organisms whose status as agents of food poisoning is a matter of further investigations and discussion-for example members of the genera Proteus and Bacillus as well as other bacteria, of which some are normal inhabitants of the intestine. It may well be that any organism that grows abundantly enough in a food may do some harm to it and may be a potential danger. For a discussion of these and many other problems of food poisoning the reader is referred to a valuable symposium held by the Society for Applied Bacteriology (‘955).