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115
APPENDIX II.
FOOD POISONING.
(a) On November 20th, 1924, information was received that
Alice H. (37 years of age), of Peabody Square, Blackfriars Road,
Southwark, had died the previous day at the Southwark Hospital
from food poisoning, and it was alleged that the cause
of death was due to crab, which had been eaten by the deceased seven
days previously, the crab having been obtained (so it was stated) from
a well-known Oyster Bar in Waterloo Road, Lambeth. Enquiries
shewed that the Oyster Bar was well conducted, and kept, at all times,
in a sanitary condition. The trade from this Bar is considerable, but
no other suspicious case of food poisoning was reported amongst the
customers, who number hundreds, in fact thousands, a week.
Officially, it was decided from the evidence, and after making special
investigations, that the particular Oyster Bar in Waterloo Road, and
the suspected crab, were not to blame. The result of the bacteriological
examination of the body of the deceased, made by Dr. Creed,
of King's College Hospital, (as reported at the Coroner's inquest), was
as follows:—
"Samples were taken from the peritoneal exudate, the gastric
contents, contents of the small intestine, blood from the spleen,
blood from the heart and contents of the large intestine; various
bacterial culture media were inoculated with these materials, and
then incubated under aerobic and under anaerobic conditions;
whilst special methods were adopted to determine whether any
sporing bacteria were present. In some cases, inoculations were
made into animals.
The result of the cultures was that no sporing bacteria and
no significant anaerobic bacteria were isolated from any of the
above-mentioned materials, and there is no reason for supposing
that the death was due to the baccilus botulimis. Neither the
bacillus Enterilides Gaërlneri nor the bacillus Aërtrycke was
isolated. The bacillus coli and the bacillus proteus were isolated
from all the materials mentioned above, with the exception of the
blood from the heart, which was found only to contain the bacillus
proteus. The strain of the bacillus proteus that was isolated proved
to be exceptionally virulent to the guinea pig and to the mouse."
In view of the bacteriological findings and the other evidence, the
Coroner's verdict was as follows;—" Acute peritonitis following gastroenteritis
caused by infection of the bacillus proteus, but how such
bacillus proteus gained access to the deceased, there is not sufficient
evidence to shew. Death from natural causes." Clearly, a sporadic
case. There is considerable difference of opinion as to the bacillus
proteus being a cause of death, even when found in the body of a
deceased person. It is a bacillus that is ubiquitous in all dead