According to recent observations summarized by Dickson,1 the variety of bacterial food poisoning known as botulism is not unusual in this country, being relatively common in the Pacific coast states. It has been found, further, that meat and meat products are by no means, as once believed, the exclusive, if even the main, source of the poison in question, which may occur also in canned vegetables and fruits, being produced by the growth of the anaerobic B. botulinus. The normal habitat of this bacillus is not known,.and the exact manner in which vegetables and other food substances become contaminated is still a mystery. Botulism is not limited to human beings; it is a frequent cause of so-called limber-neck in the domestic fowl, and it may be responsible for certain forms of paralysis in various domestic animals. The toxic agent, which is a true toxin in the strict immunologic sense