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63
members of this group to have acquired infection at either place, and it
might be that some of them were infected at one place and some at the
other. I find that in .1897 a number of cases occurred after a day trip
to Southend among children from this same district. It would be well
for those responsible for excursions to seaside places to warn those in
their charge of the danger they run in eating shellfish. This is done
in some instances, and I know of one large party of children who went
to Southend about the same time as those mentioned above. None of the
children were allowed to pick up or buy shellfish, and none subsequently
suffered.
"As there is a Commission sitting to enquire into the best means for
the disposal of sewage, it would be well to draw their attention to the
matter."
Similar experiences have been reported from other parts of London.
The Corporation of the City of London had their attention directed
thereto, as the cockles were sold at markets in the City and were also
obtained and relaid within the jurisdiction of the City as Port Sanitary
Authority. Instructions were thereupon given to Professor Klein to
examine cockles coming from Leigh, and he found that they all gave
evidence of sewage pollution, and in certain samples he also isolated the
typhoid organism. Dr. Collingridge, the Medical Officer of Health for
the City of London, then reported* as follows:—•
"The question then arose as to dealing witli an obviously dangerously
infected source of food supply.
"Under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, it is possible to obtain
a Justiceper cent.s Order to destroy per cent.any article, whether solid or liquid, intended
for the food of man, and sold, or exposed for sale, or deposited in.
any place for the purpose of sale, or of preparation for sale, if it appear
to such Justice that the same is diseased or unsound, or unwholesome,
or unfit for the food of man.per cent.
"There is no question that the cockles would come under the above
section, and could be so dealt with if the fact were at once evident.
"But the necessary examination involves the lapse of a considerable
time, in most cases five or six days, and before the results of such
examinations could be known in the case of any one sample, the whole
quantity from which such sample was taken would have been consumed.
Further, even if practicable, such action would only be applicable to
such cockles as were brought within the jurisdiction of the Corporation,
and the owners, if they were so disposed, would be at liberty to send
them to any other part of the country.
*Monthly Report, No. 54.