They are found in all dead matter after a time, whether it
is decayed food or a decaying corpse.
"No general reaction is known by which the ptomaines can be
distinguished from the vegetable alkaloids. But we know that
animal alkaloids always develop either as a result of decay of
food or of the decay of the body itself."
At one stroke Kennedy had reopened the closed case and had placed
the experts at sea.
"I find that there is an animal conine as well as the true
conine," he hammered out. "The truth of this matter is that the
experts have confounded vegetable conine with cadaveric conine.
That raises an interesting question. Assuming the presence of
conine, where did it come from?"
He paused and began a new line of attack. "As the use of canned
goods becomes more and more extensive, ptomaine poisoning is more
frequent. In canning, the cans are heated. They are composed of
thin sheets of iron coated with tin, the seams pressed and
soldered with a thin line of solder. They are filled with cooked
food, sterilised, and closed.
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