D. H. KRESS, M. D by Daniel H. Kress

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1911

D. H. KRESS, M. D

By Daniel H. Kress

Ptomain-Poisoning

D. H. KRESS, M. D

We have reached the time of year when ptomain-poisoning will be common. Already the papers are beginning to report cases. Among them is the following, which appeared in the Washington Post of May 23:—

“PEABODY, KAN., May 22.—At a meeting of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Society at the home of a farmer living three miles north of here, twenty-six persons were poisoned from eating pressed chicken in which ptomain had developed. Two of them have since died, and the other twenty-four are now in a dangerous condition.”

Last year over thirteen thousand cases of acute ptomain-poisoning were reported in the United States. About three thousand of these died within twenty-four hours after the poisoning occurred. Many who recovered never fully regained their health, and some will bear a burden of ill health for life.

While acute ptomain-poisoning has slain its thousands, chronic ptomain poisoning has slain its tens of thousands. Yet very little is said in the newspapers concerning the latter. Not merely does it destroy its tens of thousands, but it disables millions yearly, unfitting them for work and the enjoyment of life.

In acute ptomain-poisoning the foods eaten have already undergone decay, perhaps in the can, or after the opening of the can. Or the meat may not have been properly embalmed by the butcher, and so have undergone putrefactive changes before or after selling it. The fish may not have been kept on ice. The poisons developed by the putrefaction of meats of any kind are most deadly. When developed outside of the body, being soluble, they are rapidly absorbed from the mucous membrane of the mouth and alimentary tract in sufficient amounts to cause immediate serious and often fatal results.

In chronic ptomain-poisoning the meats undergo putrefaction chiefly after they are eaten. The poisons are formed gradually, and are, therefore, not absorbed in sufficient quantities to cause immediate fatal or even serious results; but they do produce headaches, nervousness, insomnia, and a host of other disagreeable and unwelcome symptoms, which hinder men and women from engaging in active work, and which tend to make life miserable. The matter does not end here, however. The continuous absorption of these poisons, while it does not cause death within twenty-four hours, kills just as surely. They shorten life.

It is a well-established scientific fact that most of the ills of humanity are due to what is termed autointoxication, or self-poisoning, and that the foods which are chiefly responsible for this condition are the highly albuminous foods, which readily undergo decay under favorable conditions. It is also recognized that the continuous absorption of this small amount of poison tends to bring about degenerative changes in all the tissues of the body, chiefly, however, the arteries, the heart, the kidneys, liver, brain, and other glands. It brings about premature old age, or a condition known as arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Most of the deaths after the age of forty are due to these changes.

During the past few years, deaths due to cancer, Bright’s disease, diabetes, heart failure, and apoplexy have been rapidly on the increase. Men apparently in robust health drop over suddenly on the streets, in their offices, or in their homes, and expire in a few moments. It is considered strange; but there is nothing strange about it. Death is due to chronic ptomain-poisoning. Insidiously, by the continuous irritation caused by these poisons, changes were taking place in the blood-vessels which destroyed their elasticity, and caused them to become hard and brittle. This change is usually most pronounced in the blood-vessels of the brain. The increased blood pressure resulting from this condition throws an extra burden on the heart and the blood-vessels. Some extra physical exertion or excitement is all that is needed to increase the blood pressure sufficiently to cause one of the thin-walled blood-vessels in the brain to rupture, or the heart to give out.

We have suppressed, in a measure, contagious and infectious epidemic diseases, and have thereby greatly increased the average age of life. But while we are able to keep alive a greater number to the age of forty, there are fewer who live to the age of sixty than when the average age of life was much less than what it is to-day. Men are cut off suddenly at an age when they should be able to accomplish the greatest good, and to continue their usefulness for another half-century.

While tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee—the four great poisoners of the human race—all tend to bring about these same degenerative changes in the arteries and glands of the body, the poisons formed in the alimentary tract by the free use of foods which readily decay are without doubt one of the chief causative factors of premature old age, and of the great increase in the number of deaths due to cancer, apoplexy, heart failure, Bright’s disease, and diabetes, diseases which to-day are responsible for most of the deaths.

It is especially unwise to eat largely of flesh foods in warm weather,—first, because of their increased tendency to decay outside of the body, and second, because of the decrease in digestive juices, and the consequent increased tendency for them to decay within the body. In fact, it would be well to cut out altogether the flesh of animals as an article of food, especially during the summer months, and in its place to use fruits, grains, vegetables, etc. Those who subsist on such food seldom die of the diseases named. Of course they usually possess the good sense to abstain from the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee.

It is unsafe to use meats at any time, and especially is this the case during warm weather. While those who do use them may not be cut down suddenly from an overdose of poison, they are nevertheless surely being cut down from the effect of the smaller doses which are daily absorbed from the alimentary tract; but “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

The number of diseases and the many premature deaths due to meat-eating are not appreciated as they should be.