THE OCCURRENCE OF BACILLUS BOTULINUS IN NATURE

Abstract

Van Ermengem, who was the first to isolate B. botulinus from poisonous food and who proved that it was the organism which produced the toxin causing the type of food poisoning known as botulism, made repeated efforts to isolate B. botulinus from nature. He made cultures of garden soil, dirt from the streets, mud from ponds and rivers, manure from stables, cow manure, horse manure, duck excreta and the intestinal contents of various species of fish. He was never able, however, to find the bacillus except in two specimens of ham which had caused outbreaks of poisoning (Van Ermengem, 1912). The work of Kemper and Pollack (1897) who recovered a strain from the intestinal contents of a hog, is the only recorded case of the isolation of B. botulinus from nature. This finding, together with the fact that botulism was at that time chiefly connected with poisoning from sausages and ham, led to the belief that B. botulinus was a normal inhabitant of the hog intestine. In 1917 Dr. E. C. Dickson2 of Stanford Medical School, San Francisco, undertook to check up the work of Kemper and Pollack. Dr. Dickson examined the intestinal contents of 250 grain-fed hogs which were slaughtered for market in South San Francisco. The contents of the colon and ilium were the portions chosen for examination. No trace of B. botulinus was