CADMIUM "FOOD POISONING"

In recent years cases of gastroenteritis in groups, designated for want of a better term as food poisoning, have been much more thoroughly investigated, and as a result the distinctive characteristics peculiar to various individual etiologic factors have been more clearly defined. For example, the description of the symptoms of staphylococcic food poisoning almost invariably follows a definite pattern, and as a result the experienced investigator often suspects the condition long before the final confirmatory bacteriologic report is completed.

A similar situation exists in the case of acute poisoning with cadmium, a characteristic type of gastritis caused by the accidental contamination of certain food and drink with soluble cadmium compounds. In our experience the history of the preparation of the food or drink and the clinical pictures are so similar in all outbreaks that the diagnosis is evident once the condition is thought of and the pertinent facts have been