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86
The total amount of fish offal produced at these shops daily
is about 2 tons 11 cwt. After the first inspection steps were
taken to secure a daily removal of offal from all the fish shops.
Various defects were found and remedied during the year.
In four shops a w.c. was found within the place where the fish
was stored.
Ice Cream.
During the year ice-cream was sold on 116 premises in
Battersea, the number in 1903 being 115. These premises were
supervised by Inspector Benjamin. Various offences against the
Public Health Act were discovered, and in 30 instances there
was failure to comply with the provisions relating to ice-cream
in the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1902. In
all these cases, however, the defects were remedied without any
recourse to legal proceedings.
In the early part of July a serious outbreak of food
poisoning occurred, which there was reason to attribute to the
consumption of contaminated ice-cream. The persons affected
had all eaten ice-cream from a certain shop; a few ate the
ice-cream on the evening of 8th July, and the greater number on
9th July. Particulars were obtained from 54 patients, but
there were others affected of whom no particulars could be
obtained. In all the known cases the symptoms were similar,
and appeared within twenty-four hours after eating the
ice-cream, the usual period being from eight to fourteen hours.
The symptoms began with violent abdominal pain, followed by
severe diarrhoea and sickness. The temperature was raised in
most cases, varying from 101° to 103° F. The pulse was rapid
and feeble, and in most of the cases the patient soon became
collapsed. No case was fatal. Unfortunately, the ice-cream
which gave rise to this outbreak was all consumed by the
evening of Saturday, the 9th, and no sample, therefore, could
be taken for analysis. When the first cases were reported to
me early on the following Monday morning, I at once visited
the shop, and seized all the ice-cream on the premises. A