The incidence of diarrhea and vomiting in infants during the summer months has considerably decreased with better methods of feeding and a more sanitary milk supply; but summer diarrhea and vomiting are still commonly seen, especially in localities where the heat is extreme. This familiar combination of symptoms has been variously known as cholera infantum, summer complaint or diarrhea, acute gastro-intestinal indigestion, colitis, dyspepsia, decomposition and alimentary intoxication. These names have often included bacillary dysentery as well as the less well understood diarrheas in which no specific infection of the gastro-intestinal tract can be found. In this paper we shall confine ourselves to the nonspecific diarrheas of the severe and frequently fatal type, and for the purpose of discussion we shall refer to the condition as alimentary intoxication.
A great deal of study has been devoted to this condition by various investigators, and although the conclusions are somewhat conflicting it