_--In phallin-poisoning the blood remains fluid; numerous
haemorrhages are present, with fatty degeneration of the internal organs.

_Treatment._--Use the stomach-tube to give a solution of permanganate of
potash, emetics, followed by a hypodermic injection of 1/50 grain of
atropine. Transfusion of saline fluid. A dose of castor-oil would be
useful.

=Foods.=--The kinds of food which most frequently produce symptoms of
poisoning are pork, veal, beef, meat-pies, potted and tinned meats,
sausages, and brawn. Sausage-poisoning is common in Germany. It is not
necessary that the food should be 'high' to give rise to poisoning. It
may arise from the use of the flesh of an animal suffering from some
disease, from inoculation with micro-organisms, or from the presence of
toxalbumoses or ptomaines. Many diseases, such as diarrhoea, enteric
fever, and cholera, and perhaps tuberculosis, may be caused by eating
infected food. Trichiniasis may also be mentioned. Tinned fish often
gives rise to symptoms of poisoning, and shell-fish are not uncommonly
contaminated with pathogenic micro-organisms. Mussel-poisoning was
formerly supposed to be due to the copper in them derived from ships'
bottoms, but it is more probably the result of the formation of a toxine
during life, and not after decomposition has set in. Milk, too, may give
rise to gastro-intestinal irritation from the occurrence in it of
chemical changes. There have been epidemics of poisoning from eating
cheese containing _tyrotoxicon_. Ergotism from eating bread made with
ergotized wheat is now rare, but _pellagra_ from the consumption of
mouldy maize, and _lathyrism_, due to the admixture with flour of the
seeds of certain kinds of vetch, are still common in Southern Europe.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms which result from the ingestion of poisonous
meat are often very severe. In some cases their appearance is delayed
from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. They may resemble those of an
infectious disease or those of acute enteritis. Usually there are
headache, anorexia, rigors, intestinal disturbance, pains in the back
and limbs, and delirium. Sometimes the symptoms resemble
atropine-poisoning, a condition due to ptomatropine.

_Treatment._--Emetics, purgatives, stimulants, with hypodermic
injections of strychnine and atropine along with stimulants.

XLVIII.--PTOMAINES OR CADAVERIC ALKALOIDS

Every medical man, before presenting himself to give evidence in a case
of