Chicken Salad and Ice Cream Poisoning.—Certain violent attacks of so-called ptomaine poisoning may be traced to chicken salad which has been allowed to stand overnight in tin receptacles or to ice cream which has melted and been re-frozen. In any case the treatment remains the same.
Treatment.—The patient is put to bed and the intestinal tract cleansed by means of enemas and in many cases purgatives (salts, castor oil, etc.) as directed by physician.
The symptoms usually present in those suffering from ptomaine poisoning are nausea, vomiting, dizziness, pain more or less violent in character, and prostration which is at times alarming.
Dietetic Treatment.—The treatment instituted under the circumstances is very much the same as that used in other forms of acute poisoning. All food is withheld for a period; the duration of this starvation must necessarily depend upon the condition of the patient, the violence of the poison and the extent of the prostration.
Rectal Feeding.—When the prostration is great, it is sometimes necessary to give saline enemas and even rectal alimentation to prevent collapse.
Fluid Diet.—After the violent attack subsides, the patient is placed upon a fluid diet similar to that used in auto-intoxication and practically the same as the diet for acute infectious diseases. The diet must be gradually increased until it becomes normal and the nurse must remember that the patient is in a condition to suffer a relapse with the least indiscretion. It is advisable to have a thorough investigation made to ascertain the source of the original attack, that the patient may be able to avoid future trouble from partaking of the same food.
Personal Idiosyncrasies.—It may be that there is a personal idiosyncrasy against one particular food, and in this case it becomes more or less of a simple matter to prevent future attacks. Certain individuals are, for example, invariably poisoned by eating shellfish, others manifest a similar idiosyncrasy against strawberries. Thus is the old proverb demonstrated: “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” And he who wantonly flies in the face of the danger signals Nature provides for his guidance must necessarily suffer the consequences of his folly.
It has been proved with certain individuals that the foods that at one time cause an attack of poison at another time may be eaten with impunity. Thus it would seem to remain a question not so much of the type of poison, ptomaines, etc., as the amount of resistance manifested at the time by the individual partaking of the infected food.
ACIDOSIS
Metabolism of Fats.—Acidosis is a condition believed to be due primarily to some impairment in the metabolism of fat in the body, in consequence of which there is an accumulation of substances more or less irritating and at times toxic in character in the blood. These substances, known as acetone bodies, are especially apt to appear in the urine of individuals suffering from diabetes, likewise in those undergoing starvation, whether as a result of treatment to overcome a definite pathological condition, as in diabetes, or as the result of disease itself.