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35
Further samples, marked 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, were procured on
the 9th December, and one other, marked 9, on the 15th December.
These were examined by Professor Klein, with results as shown in the Table
appended. It will be seen that all seven samples were polluted, and that six
of them came from South Holland.
As the result of enquiries it was ascertained that the dealers sold these
mussels in accordance with instructions received from the Fishmongers'
Company, viz., to caution purchasers to boil them for three-and-a-half
minutes,* and that a notice was exhibited to this effect.
The Company were at once informed that this was obviously a most
unsatisfactory mode of dealing with the matter. The mussels are known to
be sewage-contaminated, and therefore dangerous to health, and under no
circumstances can there be any sufficient guarantee that the recommendation
would be properly carried out. It is well known that these shellfish are
bought by costermongers and other small dealers who have no appliances for
efficient cooking.
As these shellfish are largely imported from Holland at this season of the
year, these facts were brought to the notice of the Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries, the Medical Department of the Local Government Board, the
representative of the Netherlands Government in this country and the Fishmongers'
Company.
On the 28th December one case, and on the 31st December two other cases,
of Enteric Fever attributed to mussels purchased in the City, were reported
by the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth. The mussels in each
instance came from layings in Hadleigh Ray, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
A sample of mussels (No. 11) from this source was purchased on the 2nd
January and submitted to Professor Klein. As these were found to be
polluted, the dealers were informed that if they continued to send them to
our markets proceedings for condemnation would be taken under the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891.
Your Medical Officer of Health has, however, now received written undertakings
from the two proprietors of these layings; in the one case not to
expose Hadleigh mussels for sale without giving him due notice of their
intention to do so, and in the other not to have any more up until your
Medical Officer of Health considers them free from contamination. No further
action, therefore, was necessary.
In the case of the polluted Dutch mussels, the Fishmongers' Company
are co-operating with the Netherlands Government with a view to a thorough
investigation being made of the conditions under which they are cultivated
and exported to this country.
* Some of the merchants advise their customers to boil mussels for four minutes.