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73
This is a risky condition of things that only requires public attention to be
directed to it in order to obtain some remedy. It must be remembered that a
large number of the cases of slight sickness or illness caused by tinned foods do
not come into records, but they are more or less known to many families and
most medical men. In addition to the liability of causing sickness, very stale
tinned foods cannot possibly be so beneficial as nutriment, in fact in the course
of years much of the proper dietetic effect must be lost. The remedy that
suggests itself to me as effectual is to provide by law—that all tins containing
tinned food shall have stamped upon the bottom the date of tinning.
Shellfish.—The Local Government Board have issued an authoritative Report
on oyster culture in relation to disease—Twenty-fourth Report of the Local
Government Board supplement to the Report of the Medical Officer for 1894-5,
London, 1896. Previous to this a number of observers had recorded the
effects of sewage contaminated shellfish upon consumers, notably the late Dr.
Bristowe. Also in the Journal of the Sanitary Institute, Part IV., 1896, was
a paper upon "the spread of Enteric fever by means of sewage contaminated
shellfish," by Dr. Arthur Newsholme.
These Reports point to the fact that it is as dangerous to pollute estuaries
with sewage as it is to pollute rivers, so that seaside towns in the proximity of
river mouths will have to resort to some other methods than that of casting
crude sewage into estuaries, and perhaps may have in some cases to bear the
burden of sewage purification like inland towns.