Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of illness at Mansfield caused by eating potted meat / [G.S. Buchanan].

  • George Seaton Buchanan
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of illness at Mansfield caused by eating potted meat / [G.S. Buchanan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/12
    OFFICIAL COPY. Dr. G. S. Buchanan’s Report to the Local Government Board on an Outbreak of Illness at Mansfield caused by eating Potted Meat. R. ThornE Thorne, Medical Officer, June 15th, 1896. In February 1896 the Medical Officer of Health of the Borough of Mansfield, Dr. Wills, reported to the Board the sudden occurrence in that town of a plurality of attacks of illness resembling “ food poisoning,” due, as he suspected, to consumption of certain samples of potted meat. MAIN FEATURES OF THE OUTBREAK. Having received instructions to make inquiry into the matter, I visited Mansfield, and, with the assistance of Dr. Wills, set about collecting facts with regard to all the cases of this illness which could he heard of. It will he convenient to state at once that although we heard rumours of several different articles of food—pork pies, brawn, sausages, “ polonies,” and the like—having caused the illness from which particular people suffered, yet detailed inquiry showed that every one of those attacked had consumed one article in common, a certain “ potted meat ”—a recently-prepared compound, to be distinguished from the class of potted meats sold in hermetically sealed tins—made by a butcher in the town, to whom I will refer as Mr. X. In response to a circular letter addressed to the several medical practi¬ tioners in Mansfield and the neighbourhood, these gentlemen very kindly supplied me with information as to persons in their practices who had been attacked. These persons, together with those of whom Dr. Wills and I heard from other sources, amounted in all to 265. Other cases no doubt occurred which did not come to our knowledge, hut the number escaping recognition must needs have been comparatively insignificant. Symptoms. The history given by those attacked was of an illness characterised by gastro-enteric disturbance—diarrhoea, vomiting, and colic. Diarrhoea was the first sign of illness in most cases, and occurred during some part of the attack in almost all. It was profuse diarrhoea, and the motions were generally said to have been dark (sometimes they were described as black); almost always, it would appear, they were highly offensive. Vomiting was a frequent occurrence at the first onset of the illness, hut had not often continued after the first two days of attack. Colic was usually severe, and patients who had profuse diarrhoea along with acute abdominal pain had, in some instances, become alarmingly collapsed. These symptoms were accompanied by, and in a few instances appeared to have been preceded by, febrile and nervous disturbances. The fever was LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller,- from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow ; or HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., Limited, 104, Graeton Street, Dublin. 1896. Price Threepence, or ti !..» -T < 3 General i^LLCOME LIBRARY Collections +P No. 103.