The bacteria are usually all killed,
but now and then, the apparatus does not work, and they develop in
the can. That results in a 'blown can'--the ends bulge a little
bit. On opening, a gas escapes, the food has a bad odour and a bad
taste. Sometimes people say that the tin and lead poison them; in
practically all cases the poisoning is of bacterial, not metallic,
origin. Mr. Godwin may have died of poisoning, probably did. But
it was ptomaine poisoning. The blown cans which I have discovered
would indicate that."
I was following him closely, yet though this seemed to explain a
part of the case, it was far from explaining all.
"Then followed," he hurried on, "the development of the usual
ptomaines in the body itself. These, I may say, had no relation to
the cause of death itself. The putrefactive germs began their
attack. Whatever there may have been in the body before, certainly
they produced a cadaveric ptomaine conine. For many animal tissues
and fluids, especially if somewhat decomposed, yield not
infrequently compounds of an oily nature with a mousey odour,
fuming with hydrochloric acid and in short, acting just like
conine.
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