Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1892 — Bacilli in the Soup. [ARTICLE]

Bacilli in the Soup.

We do not intend to perpetrate slang. In this case the bacilli infect the soup. We quote from a writer in the British and Colonial Druggist: “The danger of eating certain kinds of tinned and preserved meats, especially those liable to rapid fermentation, is now well known. Several deaths have been recently reported due to this cause,, and too much care cannot be exercised in eating this kind of food during the present season of the year. Another damage has recently been brought to light, and one that cannot be too widely known. The preparation of the compound called stock is well known to most housewives and those who know anything about cooking. It is usually composed of odds and ends of all kinds of food that have been left, which are put away by cooks and preserved in large jars. These are occasionally not used up for some length of time. The compound is largely employed in the kitchens of hotels and restaurants for making soups, gravy and other savory adjuncts to the gastronomic art. From a recent investigation qf certain samples of pork and gravy stock, Dr. Klien has discovered that a bacillus is found In the latter. He succeeded in obtaining the organisms from the lungs of mice that had been fed on stock, which on the second day had developed severe intestinal disturbance and coi.gestion of the lungs He describes the bacillus as being in the form of threads or rods of various lengths, of which he was able to make cultivations. Cooks should be warned that stock ought to be kept in jars from which the air can be excluded, and should not be used after it has been kept longer than three or four days. The very composition of the compound renders it a suitable medium for the development of micro-organisms, which, when taken into the system, may do an incalculable amount of harm.” This caution is important and deserves heeding.