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Food Poisoning.
Much misunderstanding exists in the minds
of the public as to the cause of food poisoning.
Contrary to popular belief, in none of its forms
is it necessarily associated with decomposing
foods.
The illness may be due to the consumption
of food infected with disease-producing bacteria
as specific for example as those causing typhoid
fever and bearing no relation to the saprophytic
organisms generally found in dead organic matter.
Food contaminated with harmful metal or other
chemicals has given rise to cases of food poisoning
while poisonous plants have been eaten in the
belief that they were the wholesome food which
they resembled, with dire results.
In the course of the year, seven cases were
notified. There was no single outbreak involving
the public at large, nor indeed, the members of
more than one family. The cases, which included
examples of each type mentioned above, demanded
very full enquiries and careful investigation,
but satisfactory conclusions were not always
reached because of the difficulty of obtaining
either bacteriological or chemical confirmation.
Often by the time the cases were brought to the
notice of the Public Health Department, the person
had recovered from the malady, which is frequently
of sudden onset and generally of brief duration
so that the suspected food was not available for
examination and bacteriological proof had become
impossible.
In December 1940 four persons of one family
became ill, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea
about four hours after the Sunday dinner. At
first their joint of beef was suspected but a
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