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Ill
POISONOUS NUTS.
An unusual case of poisoning occurred last summer, when on the 4th of
August I received notice from the Police that several children at Guy's
Hospital were being treated there for symptoms of irritant poisoning, caused
by eating nuts sold by a costermonger in Peckham.
The Hospital Authorities communicated with the Metropolitan Police, who,
in turn, notified the City Police by telegram, as under :—
" Several persons have been treated at Guy's Hospital and elsewhere
" for vegetable poisoning, the result of eating Kaloo Nuts sold by
" Mr. B., Duke's Place, Aldgate, to E. T., Blue Anchor Lane, Peckham.
" 3rd inst."
Upon receipt of this message, I visited the City and traced the bulk of the
nuts to the premises of a cocoanut and general fruit merchant in Mitre Square,
Aldgate, and obtained the surrender of the remainder of the consignment.
On the following day, viz., Monday, 5th August (Bank Holiday), these nuts
were taken before Alderman Sir John Ritchie at the Mansion House, who
condemned the same as unfit for human food, and made an order for their
destruction.
It appears that they were a consignment of 16 cwt., of a kind unknown to
the dealer, who had purchased them from a ship's captain who had brought
them to this country as a speculation. There was said to be nothing
exceptional in this transaction, as the dealer stated he was in the habit of
encouraging ships' captains to furnish him with novelties of this kind.
Fortunately the Peckham costermonger was the City dealer's first and only
customer. This man bought two cwt., which he hawked in Southwark, with
the result that five children, who ate some, had to be taken to Guy's Hospital.
In addition to these, eight other children, belonging to five families living
in Peckham, suffered from similar symptoms of irritant poisoning. In these
cases, some boys from houses adjoining that where the nuts were stored had
climbed a fence and stolen some of the nuts, which they subsequently distributed
amongst their acquaintances.
Dr. Newton Palmer, House Physician in Guy's Hospital, has kindly
furnished me with the following notes on the cases seen by him : —
" I was called to four of the five cases which came up, all presenting similar
" features, their ages varying from two to seven years. The worst case (which
" was admitted) was a child of two years eight months, suffering like the rest from
" an acute gastritis. At 12 mid-day she had eaten some of these nuts, commenced
" vomiting at ] p.m., and continued till after admission at 3 p.m. She was in a
" collapsed condition, temp. 94'6, pulse 120, resp. 26, with sunken eyes and