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outside, but that there was little difference on the average in the
' O
time between the houses during which the beer stood in the tanks.
As this did not throw sufficient light on the difference between
Hammersmith and our own district. I visited all four of the
Hammersmith Houses with the Brewery Company's Representative.
At numbers 1 and 2 no trouble whatever could be traced. At
No. 2 the Potman and three customers had been affected. Two
of the customers so severely that they were in the Infirmary
for a fortnight, but beyond that nothing can be traced although
there seems to be a considerable number of what may he
described as fairly heavy drinkers.
At No. 2 it was almost entirely a "Local Trade." At No. 1
the trade was found to be very largely "in and out." Amongst
the regular customers were about a dozen coal-heavers working in
a local coal yard. These men were practically all steady, heavy
drinkers, but none of these appear to have been affected.
At No. 3 which had a very large trade in mild ale, there
were no complaints whatever, although this was very largely a
" Local Trade."
At No. 4 only one case was discovered despite the fact that
this house was doing the largest mild ale trade and had a
considerable number of steady drinkers.
In all these houses, however, there was a marked week-end trade
and the tanks were supplemented by one, two or even three wooden
barrels. In No. 3 for instance the beer was delivered on Saturday
morning and one tank and nearly half a second one were finished
the same day. During the week the average duration of time in
which the beer remained in the tanks was two days and in some
cases rather longer. In three of the four houses there were two
periods in which the beer had remained a week before being
replenished, so that from the analyses from similar tanks it would
appear that the beer must have been highly contaminated. On
interrogating one of the publicans in our district in the same way,
he stated that within a fortnight of the installation of the tanks,
his customers in large numbers were complaining of stomach
trouble and that several of them had been fairly ill. In addition