View report page

104
Section 7 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, which requires every manufacturer
of margarine or margarine-cheese to keep a register showing the quantity and destination
of every consignment sent out, should be extended to Cheese, and that not only the
representatives of the Board of Agriculture, but the Medical Officer of Health of
the Local Sanitary Authority should have an opportunity of inspecting it when
necessary.
(Signed) J. KEAR COLWELL.
Dr. Newman further states that Messrs. A B and C furnished him with a
complete record of their transaction in this particular consignment, which showed
that they bought altogether 70 or 80 Cheeses, which were sold by them to -firms in
Marylebone, Tunbridge Wells, Barking, Islington, Bermondsey, and Finsbury,
but that illness occurred only in Finsbury, Bethnal Green, and Bermondsey, with
the exception of one doubtful case at Tunbridge Wells.
BERMONDSEY
Dr. King-Brown, Medical Officer of Health for the Borough of Bermondsey,
states that on the 21st November he was informed of the existence of 13 cases of
irritant poisoning in his District, which were supposed to be due to Dutch Cheese,
and that four other cases had occurred in the Borough of Deptford.
The symptoms were, in all cases, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, prostration,
and feverishness coming on from two to six hours after eating the Cheese, and it was
observed that in the same house only those who had eaten it were so attacked. The
Cheese had all been bought from one shop, one or two on the 19th November, and
the remainder on the 20th. There were no deaths, but in some cases the symptoms
persisted for two or three days, one child being seriously ill.
By careful enquiry Dr. King-Brown discovered eight other cases of a similar
character, and traceable to the same cause. On visiting the shop, the proprietor
informed the Medical Officer that he had none of the Cheese for sale, as on account
of the complaints of his customers as to its ill-effects he had ceased to sell. Seven
Cheeses remained in stock, which he was then having analysed. A sample was
taken and submitted for examination to Dr. W. C. Pakes, of Guy's Hospital.
This Cheese had been bought from a firm in the City, who had obtained it from
the same shipper as supplied Messrs. A B and C. A further consignment of the
same Cheese was traced to another retailer in Bermondsey, but on enquiry no
complaints had been made respecting it.
Dr. King-Brown believed these cases of illness to be the result of ptomaine
poisoning
The Report of Dr. Pakes is as follows:—
250 grammes of Cheese were extracted for ptomaine; the resulting extract injected
into a mouse failed to give any result, that is, the mouse was unaffected.
A second 250 grammes were extracted in an exactly similar manner, with exactly the
same result. Two mice were fed with portions of the Cheese, and they remained
entirely unaffected.