London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1904

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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70
only a small proportion of cases were structural defects discovered. In Islington all the premises,
234 in number, were visited in the second quarter of the year, prior to the commencement of the
summer season, and Dr. Harris reports that the proprietors, for the most part foreigners, have
generally obeyed the law, and have manufactured the ices under conditions that are a great
improvement on those which obtained some years ago. Dr. Bond, the Medical Officer of
Health of Holborn, in the Italian quarter of which ice creams are largely manufactured for
sale in the streets of London, reports in a similar sense. He writes: "On account of the increased
powers which we have by the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1902, the premises where ice
cream is manufactured or sold are now in better condition. Many rooms and bedrooms which, before
the Act came into force, were used for the manufacture, sale or storage of ice cream are no longer used
for the purpose, and many rooms or other places have been specially fitted up and prepared for this
business." In several districts, in addition to premises in which ice cream sold in the street is
manufactured, other premises where the ice cream is sold only in a shop have been brought
underinspection.
In some districts there were prosecutions under the Act, for the most part for neglect of the
itinerant vendor to exhibit on his barrow the name and address of the manufacturer of the ice cream
which he was selling. In Deptford a manufacturer was fined £2 and £'3 3s. costs for
kesping his premises in a filthy condition.
Information as to the number of premises under inspection is given by all the medical officers of
health except those of the metropolitan boroughs of Kensington, Westminster, St. Marylebone, Stepney
and Lewisham, and the following table has thus been compiled:—

The sale of ice cream.

Sanitary Area.Number of places.No. of inspections 1904.No. of natices 1904.No. of prosecutions under Act, 1904.
On register at end of 1903.Added in 1904.Removed in 1904.On register at end 1904.
Paddington2113591
Hammersmith141321172344181
Fulham1179512126415-
Chelsea60-55568--
Hampstead0922691183-
Islington18351-23428075-
Stoke Newington351
Hackney107
Holborn32132431446-
Finsbury101-1100206485
London, City of239237
Shoreditch641166919623-
Bethnal Green65--653313-
Poplar13420641
Southwark8383312
Bermondsey681-6928514-
Battersea11511626722-
Wandsworth158491519233330-
Camberwell2582966221535224
Deptford982327942721
Greenwich11857116122-
Woolwich64201831513

An outbreak of illness occurred in Battersea in July among a number of people who had eaten
ice cream purchased at a particular shop. The number of persons attacked was evidently considerable,
extending beyond 54 people of whose illness particulars were obtained by Dr. McCleary. The symptoms
in all these cases were similar and appeared within 24 hours after the ice cream was eaten, the usual
period being from eight to fourteen hours."The symptoms," Dr. McCleary states, "began with violent
abdominal pain, followed by severe diarrhoea and sickness. The temperature was raised in most cases,
varying from 101 deg. Fahr. to 103 deg. Fahr. The pulse was rapid and feeble, and in most or the cases
the patient soon became collapsed. No case was fatal." The ice cream which caused this outbreak
was all consumed and could not therefore be examined, but ice cream taken from the premises immediately
afterwards was bacteriologically examined. The specimen was found to contain 10,000 coliform
organisms per cubic centimetre, the typical Bacillus Coli Communis being apparently only present in
small numbers and the Bacillus Enteritidis Sporogenes probably entirely absent." Dr. McCleary found
the premises clean and well kept, but he states: "I have no doubt that one of the receptacles used for
storing the ice cream was contaminated by bacteria—containing dust from a dust-bin on premises
in the neighbourhood—that the ice cream stored in this receptacle also became contaminated, and that
the consumption of this ice cream gave rise to the outbreak."