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27
ICE CREAMS.
The articles used in the manufacture are milk, eggs, flour, sugar,
flavoring essences and coloring matters of various kinds; these
materials are mixed in various proportions in a metal cylinder,
which is placed in a wooden tub, and packed round with broken
ice and salt. The intense cold thus produced freezes the mixture
in the cylinder, which is stirred up in the process with a long
wooden spoon.
When the freezing is complete, the tub containing the cylinder
with its contents and packing of rough ice, &c., is transferred to a
barrow, constructed for the purpose, and the cream is retailed at
very low prices at street corners and places of public resort. It is
usually served in shallow glasses, no spoons are provided, and the
children, who are the largest purchasers, lick the cream out of the
glasses and appear to thoroughly enjoy it.
The trade is largely in the hands of low-class Italians, who reside
and manufacture in the neighbourhood of Saffron Hill. These
people are not above increasing their legitimate gains by a little
sly gambling, and I have seen some very shady transactions of this
nature between the proprietor and the idle youngsters hanging
round his barrow.
At the instance of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, a
most careful bacterioscopic examination of these ice-creams was
made by Dr. Klein last year, and many samples purchased from
barrows were examined. Dr. Klein's investigations conclusively
shewed that the ice creams must have been manufactured under
conditions of indescribable filth, for in several instances the material
shewed evidence of contamination with human excrement, a
bacillus whose known habitat is the human intestine was found, and
also a germ which was believed to be identical with that known to
cause the acute diarrhœa, which is so fatal to children in the summer
and autumn.
Following in the steps of the Islington authorities, the Vestry of
Clerkenwell recently had a chemical and bacterioscopic examination
made of samples of water in which ice-cream glasses had been
washed; the samples were taken from street stalls where a brisk