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46
ENTERIC FEVER AND WATERCRESS.
In the early part of the past year the Hackney Borough Council invited the
Corporation to support a request to the Local Government Board for an
enquiry into the sources of the watercress supplied to the Metropolis.
In reporting to the Committee thereon, your Medical Officer stated that the
London County Council had directed enquiries to be made as to the conditions
under which watercress sent to the London markets is grown, and pointed
out that whatever might be the result of such enquiry, that body would be
unable to take any useful action, as most of the watercress consumed in
London is supplied from sources outside the County, and that, therefore, the
only public body who could actively interfere was the Local Government Board.
The Sanitary Committee supported this view, and the Court subsequently
resolved that the Local Government Board should be informed that the
Corporation is in favour of such enquiry.
ANTHRAX.
The Registrar of the sub-district having notified me that a death from this
disease had occurred at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, enquiries were instituted
and the following facts ascertained :—
The patient, aged 40 years, employed at a horse-hair factory just outside
the City boundary, in the Borough of Finsbury, was taken ill on the 12th July
with headache, and on arriving at his work the following morning with a
swollen neck, he was sent by his employers to St. Bartholomew's Hospital as
a suspected case of Anthrax. A culture was taken of the discharge from an
abrasion behind the right ear, which on examination showed Anthrax bacilli
and cocci. He died on the 10th July. After death an examination was made
of a drop of blood from the heart; this also showed Anthrax bacilli and
streptococci. It was stated at the subsequent inquest that death had resulted
from Anthrax of a most virulent type. It was also given in evidence that at
the date of his attack the deceased had been working with Russian, Siberian
and English horse-hair, which had previously been washed with hot water,
soap and soda.
Ten cases of Anthrax are reported to have occurred amongst persons
employed at this factory within the last nine or ten years, two of which were
fatal.