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144
Moreover, being bound to take a judicial view in the interests of the public
health, I should hesitate to accept as satisfactory any results derived from
an examination of samples submitted by a trader personally interested in the
matter as indicated by Mr. Towse's letter.
This is not only a serious matter for the Leigh cocklers, but it raises a
question of far greater importance. If at points so far apart as the Mouse
Light, the Blythe Sands and Leigh Creek the existence of sewage pollution
can be proved, it will become necessary to make fuller and more complete
examination of all oysters, mussels, cockles or other shellfish within these
limits.
The results of Professor Klein's experiments clearly point to extensive
pollution of the whole estuary of the River Thames, and the consequent
contamination of such shellfish and fish as are found therein. The extent to
which such pollution affects the food supply is one that can only be
determined by a complete investigation.
It is most 'desirable that such an investigation should be put in hand at
the earliest possible moment, as undoubtedly the whole of the Thames
fishery is under grave suspicion.
All shellfish should certainly be examined, and in addition all sprats,
whitebait and smelts, these latter being eaten "uncleaned," and the cooking
being of such a nature as not to ensure a high temperature throughout the
whole fish. Such an investigation would naturally come within the purview
of the Port Sanitary Committee rather than of your Worshipful Committee.
Legislation is urgently required to prevent these periodical outbreaks of
disease, and the trouble and expense they entail.
Hitherto this trouble has fallen mainly upon the oyster trade, and, as I
show later, not without serious justification, but the above facts show that
the same protection to the public is required in the case of cockles.
As a matter of fact, from one point of view the danger from cockles is
greater than that from oysters, inasmuch as Professor Klein has inferred
from his investigations that the bacilli of typhoid fever will actually undergo
multiplication within the body of the cockle, while in the case of oysters it
only survived and failed to multiply.
It is interesting here to note that the bacillus of typhoid fever was actually
demonstrated in the sample of cockles (No. 10) taken from Leigh Creek on
the 3rd January.
Again, the fact that cockles are the luxury mainly of the poor should be
an argument in favour of greater need for protection.