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58
The blood of twenty-eight patients was examined at
the request of medical practitioners; in ten instances a
positive result was obtained, but in the other eighteen
the reaction was negative.
Careful enquiry was made as to articles of food partaken
of by the patients before they were attacked
with illness. Forty-six had eaten fried fish, twenty-two
watercress, thirty-seven shell-fish (usually mussels),
and fourteen ice cream.
During the first week in August increased numbers
of notifications of Enteric were received, and though
augmentation in this direction is usual in the Autumn,
it was apparent that we had here something abnormal
to deal with in the South-West District, from which
quarter nearly the whole of the cases were reported.
Efforts were made to trace the source of the epidemic;
the dairies from which the sufferers had obtained their
milk were visited, and possible sources of contamination
sought for; wholesale dealers from whom the
dairymen had purchased milk were sampled, and
enquiry was made as to local incidence of disease in
the neighbourhood of the Farms, but without incriminating
any of them. At first I was inclined to attribute
the epidemic to mussel eating, as the proportion of
mussel eaters in Bethnal Green is known to be high
and this handbill was circulated:—