Examination of Unsound Meats

(Including Tinned or Potted Meats, Fish, Etc.)

The bacterioscopic examination of unsound food is chiefly directed to the detection of those members of the Coli-typhoid group—B. enteritidis of Gaertner and its allies—which are usually associated with epidemic outbreaks of food poisoning, and such anaerobic bacteria as initiate putrefactive changes in the food which result in the formation of poisonous ptomaines, consequently the quantitative examination pure and simple is frequently omitted.