Meat or fish may become toxic to the system through substances eaten by the animal or by its own physical condition at the time it is killed. Fish and oysters, therefore, are not eaten during the spawning season.
Cow’s milk may be made obnoxious by substances on which the cow feeds. Wild garlic when eaten by the cow imparts a nauseous taste to the milk.
The flesh from diseased animals slaughtered and sold for food has occasioned violent sickness. Government inspection, however, has greatly lessened the dangers from this source.
Unripe or overripe vegetables and fruit may occasion severe vomiting and diarrhea.
Moldy flour contains a substance which may cause poisoning.
Rye may have a parasite fungus called ergot and if flour is made from rye contaminated with this growth, a form of poisoning called “ergotism” may result. It takes some time and a prolonged use of the flour to cause untoward symptoms.
Pellagra, which has been giving the southern states so much trouble, was thought to be caused by the use of spoiled corn meal. It is now thought to be due to the disturbed nutrition following too monotonous and unbalanced a diet. The excessive use of corn-meal breads with their heating qualities and the irritation of the intestinal canal may be an accessory factor.
A food which is so universally used as milk should be surrounded with every safeguard possible by rigid inspection from producer to consumer, as many infective epidemics have been traced directly to a careless or infected handler of this product. Tuberculosis and typhoid fever germs, diphtheria and scarlet fever may all be communicated by this means. Live typhoid bacilli have been found in acid buttermilk. Infected water used in washing the cans will infect the milk.
Other poisoning may occur by the tin or lead in the inside of cans being dissolved off by the acids in fruits or vegetables. This is more likely to occur when the cans of fruit have been kept for a long time. Housekeepers, who use tin cans, should not put up more fruit than will supply the family for the season.
Tomatoes, asparagus, strawberries, and apricots are especially liable to dissolve the tin from the can.