WATERCRESS, ETC. 279 



4. Red or " Bloody " Bread. Bloody, or red bread, is not an 

 affection which often troubles bakers, but it sometimes makes its 

 appearance in the household. The microbe which produces this 

 affection is of great historical interest. Livy refers to its occurrence 

 in the Eoman army, and it is said to have appeared during the siege 

 of Troy. There are various records of its occurrence in England 

 during the Middle Ages, and early in the nineteenth century a large 

 quantity of red spotted bread occurred in the province of Padua, in 

 North Italy. It is possibly due to B. prodigiosus or other similar 

 chromogenic organism, and is traceable to contamination of the 

 bread. 



5. Miscellaneous Foods 



Watercress has frequently been found to be the vehicle of bacteria 

 if grown in polluted water. There are several instances on record 

 where the consumption of such contaminated watercress has caused 

 disease. In June and July 1903 an outbreak of enteric fever 

 occurred in Hackney, in N.E. London, in which there were 110 

 cases of the disease, of whom 55'5 per cent, had consumed watercress 

 which was shown to have been grown in polluted water. The latter 

 contained 50 B. coli per c.c., and the cresses themselves were markedly 

 contaminated with sewage organisms of intestinal type. Altogether, 

 17 samples of watercress were examined, and every one of them 

 revealed the bacteria of sewage. This was a fairly clear case of 

 conveyance of enteric infection, as (1) the excess of enteric fever 

 corresponded with the season for watercress, viz., June to September ; 

 (2) the excess of cases of enteric fever was amongst watercress 

 eaters, viz., 55 per cent, for the whole period ; (3) watercress eaters 

 suffered more than three times as much as non-watercress eaters, 

 who constituted only %7'5 per cent, of the entire population; (4) 

 samples of watercress, taken from the places where infected persons 

 market, were found on bacteriological examination, to be sewage- 

 polluted ; and, (5) a large proportion of the polluted samples were 

 found to be cultivated in beds fed by almost undiluted sewage.* 



Other foods and leverages (including aerated waters) have from 

 time to time been contaminated with bacteria to the injury of the 

 consumer, but the above represent the chief foods infected. Sausages 

 have frequently been found to be contaminated. In Liverpool, 

 Boyce found B. coli present in all 17 samples examined, and B. 

 enteritidis sporogenes in 2 out of 17. Pork pies, tinned meats and pastes, 

 chicken, jellies, etc., have been shown to harbour injurious organisms.f 



* Report on Outbreak of Enteric Fever at Hackney, 1903 (Dr King Warry). 

 f- Report on Health of Liverpool, 1902, p. 172. 



