CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE INSPECTION AND SEIZURE OF UNWHOLESOME FOOD.

(446) Powers of Inspecting Food.

UNDER the 116-119th sections of the Public Health Act in the country generally and in the Metropolis under the Nuisance Removal Acts, 1855, s. 26, and 1863 s. 2, 3, and the Sanitary Amendment Act 1874, s. 54, 551 medical officers of health or inspectors of nuisances have pretty extensive powers of inspecting at "all reasonable times," any animal, carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, flour or milk exposed for sale, or deposited in any place for the purpose of sale, or of preparation for sale, and intended for the food of man-the burden of proof always resting on the party charged, of showing that the meat, &c., was not deposited for sale; if any of the substances mentioned appear "diseased or unsound or unwholesome, or unfit for the food of man, he may seize and carry away the same himself or by an assistant, in order to have the same dealt with by a justice." It is the magistrate's duty, if he consider the case proved, to order the food to be destroyed, or so disposed of as to prevent it being sold or used as food for man, while the offender may be fined up to £20, or imprisoned up to three months. warrant to search premises may be also obtained from a justice on complaint made on oath by a medical officer of health or by an inspector of nuisances. By the Horseflesh Act 52 and 53 Vict. c. 11, similar powers as to inspection, examination, and seizure are given of horseflesh sold for human food and not legibly labelled horseflesh.

1 In Scotland, under the Public Health Act (Scotland), s. 26.

Some articles of food, such for example as eggs, do not seem to be included in the list. The words are general enough to embrace all conditions of the foods mentioned which may render them unsuitable for use, such for example as incipient decomposition in all its forms up to putridity, mouldiness, the bruising of fruit, the mustiness of flour, the admixture of dirt, and also such diseases of corn as ergot; the words also embrace every species of disease which may be assumed as injurious, and in the author's opinion milk or other similar substances which can be proved to have been exposed under conditions which render it probable that the germs of infectious disease may have been absorbed come also under the section.

In a police-court case at Maidstone, it was proved that children peeling after scarlet fever were allowed to pick currants, and that such currants were sent to the London market; the justices refused to convict under the Public Health Act, a decision probably wrong, and one which would not be upheld by a superior

court.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

POISONOUS FOOD.

(447) The Development of Poison in Food.

CASES occur from time to time in which after partaking of some article of food, the person is seized with illness, which most frequently takes the form of intestinal irritation, and may indeed lead to death. Of the different kinds of butchers' meat, pork is accredited with by far the greater number of cases, but beef, veal, and mixtures such as sausages, brawn, and meat pies, have all given rise to symptoms of poisoning, and careful chemical investigation have shown that all ordinary vegetable and mineral poisons have been absent.

The cases may be divided into two classes-viz., one class in which it would seem probable that a saprophytic micro-organism has split up the albumen of the meat and produced a poisonous substance, as for example tyro-toxicon; another class which is more obscure, but a theoretical explanation may be suggested-viz., that the meat was derived from a diseased animal, in the flesh of which were one or more ptomaines produced during life and not decomposed or altered by cooking.

(448) Pork-Pie Poisoning at Retford.

One of the best examples of the first class is the pork-pie and brawn poisoning at Retford investigated by Mr. Spear.1 The material that was proved to have caused 70 cases of illness of varying severity and one death was derived from a pig, the sixth 1 Supplement to the Seventeenth Rep. Loc. Gov. Board.

survivor of a litter of seven which had come into the Retford Co-operative Society's possession in April, 1887. For six weeks before its slaughter, it was fed entirely on meal, and to all appearances was a perfectly healthy pig; it was slaughtered on the 8th of November; 50 lbs. of the pork were handed over to the baker to make pork pies and brawn; a leg and two sides were found in salt at the stores when Mr. Page made his inquiries, the remainder (about three stone) had been sold as fresh pork between the 9th and 12th of the month; no case of illness could be discovered from the consumption of the pork in its fresh state, but from that made into pie and brawn the outbreak was entirely traced, the majority of those consuming it suffering from diarrhoea and other symptoms of gastro-enteritis.

The pies and brawn were made and cooked on the 10th of November, the temperature of the oven being 220°F., or above, and they were purchased by various families and consumed, from about the 13th to the 17th. Presuming, then, that the meat was properly sterilized by cooking, it must have attained its noxious qualities in about 48 hours. There was some evidence that of the few persons who ate the brawn on the 11th, that is the day after cooking, a minority only of these became affected, while after the 11th a majority of those who consumed either the brawn or pies became ill.

was

Dr. Klein submitted the pie and brawn to a microscopical and bacteriological examination. On opening the pie there observed in its depths a wide crack in which was a continuous layer of a greyish brown viscid scum. This scum was made almost entirely of minute thick rods rounded at the ends, constricted in the middle, and in many places arranged in long chains. The single or dumb-bell rods were mobile, those in chains quiescent. There were also present micrococci in small groups or zooglœa, and a few yeast cells. The micrococci were cultivated and proved not to be pathogenic. The minute thick bacillus was cultivated and found to grow freely at a temperature of 38°C., which is one of the distinctions laid down by Dr. Klein to differentiate it from a bacillus of similar form in connection with a vealpie poisoning investigated by him on a previous occasion. The rods are mobile 8μ to 12μ in length, about 5μ in thickness, many of them constricted in the middle, forming a sort of