Report on the public health of 1903.

  • Finsbury (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Report on the public health of 1903. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/274 (page 88)
    88 griping pains in the stomach, and collapse. He died at midnight. An inquest was held, and I was present with Dr. Roe at the necessary autopsy. We found the body in a healthy condition throughout, except the stomach, which showed signs of acute poisoning. I had previously visited the beer-shop, where the cheese was purchased, and secured a sufficient amount for analysis. I append Mr. Colwell's report on the same :— I certify that I have examined the contents of the stomach, handed to me on the 6th inst., but have failed to detect the presence of tyrotoxicon or other poisons. From the sample of cheese, also furnished, I isolated a body which gave marked reactions, similar to those given by Tyrotoxicon. I may add that on attempting to repeat the experiments this morning I failed to obtain any indication of the presence of tyrotoxicon, doubtless due to the fact that tyrotoxicon decomposes with great facility. (Signed) J. Kear Colwell. Chemical Laboratory, Town Hall, Rosebery Avenue, E.C. 10th August, 1903. On August 11th, some of the extract was found by Mr. Foulerton to have no effect on a rabbit, and some guinea-pigs and mice fed upon it. (Bacteriological Laboratory, Middlesex Hospital). But owing to the very transient and evanescent character of tyrotoxicon, it is not necessarily to be supposed that this test proves the cheese was non-poisonous. There is, indeed, every reason to suppose it was. The man had eaten nothing else during the week which could have caused his illness and death. He was a very steady man, abstemious in habits, and not given to excesses. As far as I could trace, there were no other cases of poisoning from the cheese, but it is difficult, and almost impossible to trace the consumption of a small quantity of cheese from a little shop some days after its sale. The case, on all the facts, seems to have been one of cheese poisoning, in which the poison (tyrotoxicon or whatever matter it was) was readily absorbed in a solution of tea. It is a parallel case to the 17 cases which I traced in 1901, due to the same poison.* 0 See Report on Health of Finsbury, 1901, pp. 110-116.