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There are several matters on which I propose to
make some special remarks.
(I.) PORK PIE POISONING.
In May, 1893, there was an outbreak of illness in
the Parish, which had all the characteristics of poisoning by
some irritant matter. None of the patients had anything in
common beyond their symptoms, and the fact that they had
all partaken of pork pies bought at one particular place.
The total number of persons attacked was forty, including
one of your inspectors. The symptoms of the illness were
severe diarrhœa, sickness, headache, and weakness, which
last seemed out of all proportion to the severity of the other
symptoms. In some cases there was an interval of as much
as twenty-four hours between partaking of the pies and the
onset of the illness ; and, in other cases, the patients were
attacked early, got better, and then suffered a relapse which
was more serious in character than the initial illness. Two
of those who were attacked died : one was a little child
who had eaten no pie but who occupied the same bed as
its parents who had both eaten largely and were suffering
severely. It is presumed that the child was infected by
the parents' discharges being in some way conveyed into
its system. The other case was that of an old lady of
seventy-nine.
In order to still further elucidate the outbreak a
circular letter was sent to many of the doctors in the
parish asking them if they had had any cases under their
care of diarrhœa, and sickness accompanied by extreme
prostration. In answer to these enquiries we received
information which enabled us to discover fresh cases, thus