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119
hot weather and high shade temperature that existed at the particular
time (May). These facts show that meat, infected with the bacillus
coli group from putrefaction and fermentation, may, on the one hand,
be consumed with apparent impunity for many years, but, on the other
hand, may cause a " flare up " on the accidental introduction of a food
poisoning germ or germs, or an alteration in virulence of the
bacillus coli exactly in the same way that polluted water (polluted with
fcecal matter) may be partaken of for many years with apparent
impunity until accidentally contaminated with the typhoid or cholera
or other specific germ, or an alteration in virulence of the bacillus coli,
which is generally associated with fcecal pollution (putrefaction and
fermentation).
A total of 29 victims were traced as the result of house enquiries
in the neighbourhood, and the symptoms reported were in all cases the
same, exactly the same, as also the incubation periods (3-4 hours
after consuming the suspected beef and pork). These facts narrow the
enquiry down to a specific date—viz., the 13th May, 1925—when
something untoward must have happened and a virulent poison have
been introduced into the cooked beef and pork that was sold on the
following days (the 14th to 16th May), but that had been cooked and
prepared on the 13th May, 1925.
On circumstantial evidence, the particlar joints of salted beef and
pork (cooked and prepared on the 13th May, 1925) were definitely
found guilty of poisoning 29 persons in Lambeth—26 adults and 3
children under 15 years of age (4, 6, and 11 years respectively), and the
virulence of the poison was shown by the fact that only 4 persons
escaped out of a total of 33 who were traced as having actually partaken
of the suspected foods.
(2) Bacteriological and Serological Investigations.
The bacteriological investigations proved interesting, but were not
conculusive in discovering the well-known specific germs of food
poisoning—-the Gaertner or Salmonella group of bacteria. The
inability to discover these well known specific germs does not prove
that such germs did not exist in the meat. It may be that they were
crowded out by other commoner germs, which were actually found in
the beef and pork in large quantities —viz., the bacillus Coli group and
the bacillus Proteus. Serological (agglutination) tests of victims'
blood proved positive in re-action (macroscopic) in dilutions of 1 in 25,
and 1 in 50, both to the bacillus Coli and also to the bacillus Proteus.
The former result was somewhat unexpected, and certainly uncommon.
It is difficult to understand how the bacillu Coli group (or its toxin)
could have gained access into the victims' blood as a poison (with
consequent serious acute symptoms of food poisoning and subsequent
formations within the victims' blood of agglutinins or anti-bodies)
unless the intestinal tracts of the affected persons were abnormal,
permitting of the passage of the bacillus Coli group (or its toxin)