Salmonellosis: Food Poisoning

As used in this treatise the term Salmonellosis will deal with and be limited to those acute intoxications produced by ingesting food products contaminated by organisms of the salmonella group. This well known clinical condition is characterized by an acute illness of sudden onset with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and extreme prostration. These products were considered as derivatives of the proteins in the foods. They were thought to be the result of the action of bacterial ferments or enzymes on the protein but not a product of the bacteria - not a bacterial toxin in the sense that the term is used at present. This idea of the origin of the toxic material also found expression in the term "Meat Poisoning", also frequently used in the older literature on this condition. Later with the development of the idea that the condition was definitely due to bacterial toxins the term "Food Intoxication" entered the literature.