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Legal proceedings were taken by the Council against the suppliers
of a jar of piccalilli found to contain glass, who were fined £3;
and against a baker with regard to a mouse found in a loaf of bread,
the defendant being fined £2, and £5.5.0d. costs. Other legal
proceedings related to a drawing pin in a piece of coconut slice, the
hearing being adjourned sine die. A warning letter was issued by the
Council to the manufacturers of marshmallow biscuits in which glass
was embedded.
Complaints also included the following: mould in a meat pie
(three cases,), mouldy bread (five cases), mould in a tin of peaches,
and in a minced beef loaf, foreign matter in corned beef, in bread
(two cases), in ice cream, in a bun and in butter. Other complaints
related to "bad" fish (found to be fit for consumption), bristles in
meat (found to be meat packers hemp), unfit sausages, alleged unfit
Christmas cake (found by the Public Analyst to be fit for consumption),
three cases of alleged mice dirts in bread (two of which were found to
be charred starch granules, and the third shreds of cooked liver),
unfit meat pies, a brass bolt in sausages, a dirty milk bottle,
maggots in a jam roll, and dirty in bread (four cases). In a number
of these complaints the articles were found to be not unfit.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
There were only 864 notifications of infectious disease
received during 1958, compared with 1,980 in the previous year, and
no serious outbreak occurred in the Borough. Measles totalled 480,
compared with 1,384 in 1957, and the number of notifications of
pneumonia and whooping cough were halved.
DIPHTHERIA
There was only one notified case of diphtheria occurring during
the year, and this proved to be a case of glandular fever.
POLIOMYELITIS
I am pleased to report that only two confirmed cases of poliomyelitis
occurred, one of which was paralytic in a child aged 12, and
the other non-paralytic in a child aged 14. Thirteen other notifications
had also been received ef suspected cases, and all had been
removed to the Brook Hospital for observation. Revised diagnoses
weres Osteo myelitis 25 Otitis media 2} Upper respiratory tract
infection 2$ and single cases of Tonsillitis, Pharyngitis, Virus
meningitis, Sub Arachnoid haemorrhage, Measles and Arthritis.
Although publicity of the County Council facilities for
immunisation had been previously on a large scale, following the death
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