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140
"In the first place these molluscs are, as a rule, only eaten after being
"cooked, and in the second place it is seldom that extensive cockle industries
"are carried on in other localities than those where large stretches of sand are
"exposed at low tide, and such stretches are found chiefly on the actual
"seashore or quite at the mouth of estuaries far away from sources of sewage
contamination."
The cockles prepared at Leigh are collected at various points on the Maplin
Sands, and on the Blythe, near Grain Spit.
They are taken over to and laid down in Leigh Creek for a day or two;
this being done with the object of allowing them to clear themselves of the
sand which they naturally contain.
I am informed by Dr. Watson, Medical Officer of Health for Leigh-on-Sea
that the present sewage system was installed by Mr. Baily Denton, the crude
material being treated in coke and ballast filtering tanks, and the effluent
discharged on the ebb tide only at a point about half-a-mile above the cockle
laying.
There is, further, the obvious possibility of pollution from the discharge
of sewage from Southend-on-Sea, and from the large amount of sewage sludge
and sewage contributed by the Metropolis.
From these various sources the cockle layings are contaminated to an extent
that renders them absolutely unfitted as a place of deposit. It has been
suggested that such deposition might be made in Leigh Ray, but this would
be a doubtful advantage, inasmuch as oysters and mussels from the Ray have
been found to be sewage contaminated, either from sewage coming down the
river, or from Southend-on-Sea.
The cockles are raked into hand-nets from the banks of the Creek, and
taken to the cockle sheds. Here they are plunged into coppers of boiling water
in the nets, after which they are riddled through wide-meshed sieves, which
allow the soft parts to pass through, retaining the shells, which are deposited
in heaps for sale to oyster cultivators. The cockles themselves are then
washed in about five changes of water, to the last of which a certain quantity
of salt is added.
Formerly they were washed and "boiled" in the Creek water, but latterly
the urban district public water supply has alone been used for this purpose.
It is clear, therefore, that the sewage contamination must take place before
the "boiling" and washing.
The so-called boiling is somewhat misleading. Though the water is actually
at the boiling point, the cockles are plunged in in a mass, and for a short
time, and it by no means follows that every part is exposed to a temperature
of 212° F.