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6. A man of 40 years was notified as suffering from food
poisoning thought to be due to the consumption of pork pie ; he
was admitted to hospital with acute vomiting and abdominal
pain. Immediate enquiries were made, and it was found that the
pork pie was obtained from a café in the Borough, and was part
of a consignment from a firm in the Home Counties.
None of the suspected pie was available for examination, but
specimens of pies from the same consignment were examined with
a negative result.
No further cases arising from this source were reported.
Subsequently I was informed by the hospital that the man was
found to be suffering from acute intestinal obstruction, for which
an operation, revealing an obturator hernia, was performed.
The patient did not survive.
7. Six cases of suspected food poisoning were notified by one
practitioner, who had seen all the patients in the course of two
or three days.
Investigations were made, but no common article of food
was found, and in most of the households other persons in the
families had taken the suspected food without ill effects.
Mushrooms, steak and kidney pie, and jellied eels were
blamed.
The patients all recovered rapidly.
A specimen of fasces from one patient was sent to the Pathological
Laboratory, Ministry of Health, with negative results.
Slaughter Houses.
There is only one slaughter-house in the Borough, that owned
by Mr. J. A. Mobbs, 14, Penton Street, in which sheep and lambs
only are slaughtered; a total of 163 sheep and lambs were
slaughtered in 1937. During the year 70 inspections were made
by the Meat Inspector. The premises were maintained throughout
in a clean and satisfactory condition.
Slaughter of Animals Act 1933.
Humane slaughtering by a mechanically operated instrument
is made compulsory by this Act, but before this Act all animals
were so slaughtered in the above premises.