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The medical practitioner notifying is required to state on his certificate the food
he suspects. In 17 instances meat, in one or other form—pork, rabbit, sausage,
beef, minced ham, meat pie, etc.— was suspected; in 19 instances fish—fresh, fried
or tinned; in one instance, tinned beans, and in four instances fruit—fresh or
tinned. In two instances the medical practitioner notifying was unable to state
the cause. Most of the cases were slight in character and there were no deaths.
Bacteriological investigations were made in two instances :—
(a) A girl, aged 17, ate some liver sausage, (purchased on the 1st February at
7.30 a.m.), on the 2nd February. Two-and-a-half hours later she had pains, sickness
and rash. A specimen of the sausage was submitted for analysis and the bacteriologist
reported as follows :—
"The liver sausage contains large numbers of organisms of the subtilis and
staphylococcal group. These, however, are not pathogenic. It is possible, of
course, that certain individuals may be sensitive to them and that they react in
them as an ' allergic ' phenomenon."
(b) A family, consisting of a mother and two children, had some boiled ham for
breakfast. Two hours later the elder child, a girl aged 9 years, was ill with diarrhoea
and vomiting; half-an-hour later the younger child, a boy aged 5 years, had the
same symptoms, and two hours later the mother became ill. When enquiries were