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task to carry the mind back and re-call the food partaken of manydays
previously, but in view of the fact that the early suggestion of
cockles being implicated in the outbreak, involved serious hardships
on the cockle industry (the careful cockle dealers having to suffer
equally with the careless), and having regard to the fact that fried
fish had been associated with previous outbreaks in London, every
endeavour was made to obtain reliable information both from the
persons attacked and from their friends. Fried fish being such a
plentiful commodity in the district, it was felt to be highly probable
that most of the sufferers would prove to be fried fish eaters, but such
was not the result of investigation. In only 33 cases, or 48 per cent.,
could a positive history be obtained of the patient having had fried
fish at or about the period likely to have been the affecting date, and
fifteen different shops appeared to be involved in the supply of such
fish. The highest number who purchased from any single shop was 5,
or 7 per cent.
With regard to cockles, however, 37 persons, or 54 per cent., gave
a positive history of having taken cockles, of these, 15, or 22 per cent.,
purchased them at a particular shop, while 23, or 32 per cent., were
able to fix the 26th May as the date of purchase either from the shop
mentioned or from a stall in the street.
In this connection it may be mentioned that a cockle stall was
stationed at the lower end of Prince Regent's Lane, on 26th May, and
that several of the sufferers in the smaller Custom House area bought
from this stall. The trams from here to the Barking Road are, however,
frequently used for shopping purposes, especially on Saturday
nights, and it is a very suggestive coincidence to find two cases both
attacked about the 7th or 8th of June, and living so far apart as
Grange Road and the bottom of Prince Regent's Lane, with nothing in
common except the one fact that they both went to a particular shop
in the Barking Road for cockles on Saturday evening, 26th May. It
was also commonly asserted that the patients were the only members
of the family who partook of cockles, but where fried fish was eaten
B 2