London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1933
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington Borough]
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] 933]
48
| Periods. | Diphtheria. | Enteric Fever. | Pulmonary Tuberculosis | Totals. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive Results | Negative Results. | Total Examined. | Positive Results. | Negative Results. | Total Examined. | Positive Results. | Negative Results. | Total Examined. | ||
| — | ||||||||||
SPECIAL BACTERIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL EXAMINATIONS.
A local doctor sent the Medical Officer of Health a bottle of reputed "Holy
Water from Lourdes" which had been used by a Catholic patient to gargle the
throat in a case of Tonsilitis. The patient was apparently rendered much worse
after the use of the water, and developed Nephritis with Bacillus Coli in the urine.
The Bacteriologist upon examining the specimen of alleged Holy Water reported
that a culture made from the water showed a heavy infection with Bacilli Coli
Communior. The facts are significant; this child's Coli infection was presumably
from this alleged "Holy Water."
EXAMINATION OF PEAS USED IN THE MAKING OF PEASE PUDDING-
FOOD POISONING.
At the end of the first week of October six patients were admitted to Highgate
Hospital suspected to be suffering from food poisoning, and it was stated that
food purchased at certain premises in St. Pancras was thought to be responsible.
Another patient was admitted to University College Hospital, and later six other
cases were notified; five were adults and eight were children; eleven resided in
St. Pancras, and two in Holborn. The food responsible was Pease Pudding;
portions of about five ounces were sold for a penny, each portion being in greaseproof
paper, and the outer covering, newspaper. This outbreak had an interest
for Islington, inasmuch as the peas from which this pudding was made were foreign
and had been conveyed first to Holland, processed there, and thence to this country.
A list of persons to whom the peas had been consigned in Islington was obtained
from the Medical Officer of Health for Stepney. Peas are liable to be contaminated
with organisms by dust, handling, contact with sacks, containers, etc., but in the
ordinary processes of cooking and in the making of pease pudding, a temperature
of 94 centigrade is sufficient to kill the dysentery bacillus Sonne. As a result of
two fatal cases (not in Islington) an inquest was held. It was a moot question
whether a child who had touched the pudding in the shop, and who was a carrier
of dysentery organisms, was the cause, or whether this child was herself a victim