View report page

48
and followed by a vomit of about one pint. The vomit was yellow, and contained
solid yellowish material." The patient was given an injection of strychnine,
and was admitted into one of the wards, where his temperature was found to be
96° and his pulse uncountable. Other treatment consisted of inducing vomiting,
inhalation of oxygen, and administration of brandy and strychnine. He improved
at night, and was discharged from Hospital on May 12th.
I learned that the consignment of mussels from which those supplied to the
two patients were taken, came from the beds in the South Deep, River Swale,
and had been relaid for seven days on Fowley Island in the owner's private pits.
Enquiries were made at the Fishmongers' Hall as to whether anything was
known of the source from which these particular mussels had been taken. I
was furnished with a copy of the certificate signed by Dr. Klein and dated February
6th, 1919, which stated that raw mussels taken from this source at that
date were satisfactorily clean.
Samples taken on the 14th May were likewise clean, but cooked samples
which were sent on the same date and taken from the same source were not satisfactorily
clean.
This information is of some interest since it shows that mussels satisfactorily
clean in the bed may be subsequently contaminated by inadequate or unsatisfactory
cooking. The illness, however, is probably not to be attributed directly
to infection by Bacillus Coli Communis, but is more likely to be one of Mytilotoxism.
I cannot definitely state that there is a relationship between the development
of the poisonous substance mytilotoxin in the mussel and contamination of the
water from which it is taken, but it is stated that mussels taken from stagnant
water are more especially likely to develop this poison.