View report page

51
The rhubarb had been purchased on February 20th from
a local tradesman, who had bought it at Covent Garden on
that morning. It was cooked the same day, being stewed
with sugar, in an enamelled saucepan, and was eaten at 1.30
by the child in question, her father,.and two sisters. Some
stewed steak was also eaten at the same meal by the above
and by the mother, w ho did not eat any of the rhubarb.
From two to four hours afterwards the father and the
three children were taken ill with vomiting and purging.
The father and eldest child (aged 15) soon recovered
under treatment, and were practically well within four or five
days, but the two other children became very ill, the vomiting
being persistent and attended with marked collapse, and the
youngest died on March 1st. The other child was in a very
precarious condition for some ten days longer, but eventually
recovered. It was ascertained that three other persons
who ate rhubarb from the same shop on that day also
suffered from severe digestive disturbance.
The rhubarb was grown at Chadwell Heath, in Essex, on
land which was not subject to flooding and had not been
manured that year. A chemical and bacteriological examination
of the rhubarb threw no light on the matter.
The post-mortem examination showed some gastroenteritis,
and the results of a bacteriological examination of
the spleen and other organs made at the Lister Institute were
negative.
The blood from the father and the two elder children gave
a marked typhoid reaction, as it agglutinated the typhoid
bacillus completely at a dilution of 1 in 50 and partly at 1 in
100 in half an hour, and gave no clumping with any of the
several varieties of paratyphoid and food poisoning
organisms at a dilution of 1 in 20.
The possibility, however, of the cases being Typhoid was
negatived by the post-mortem examination.