538 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 712. 
ffive rise to severe and even fatal diarrhoea, for it may be proved that 
seeding sterile broth with healthy excreta, converts the broth, on incubat¬ 
ing at blood-heat, into a liquid which is fatal to rodents, the animals 
dying from gastro-enteritis. 
Confining the attention to cases of food poisoning in which the 
symptoms have been closely analysed and described, the reader is referred 
to thirteen cases of food poisoning investigated by the medical officers 
of the Local Government Board between the years 1878 and 1891, as 
follows :— 
1878. A Case of Poisoning at Whitchurch from eating Roast Pork. 
—-Only the leg of pork was poisonous ; other parts were eaten without 
injury. Two persons died after about thirty hours’ illness. The pork 
itself, on a particular Sunday, was innocuous ; it became poisonous 
between the Sunday and the Monday ; the toxicity appeared to gradually 
increase, for those who ate it for dinner on the Monday were not taken 
ill for periods of from seven to nineteen hours, while two persons who 
ate of it in the evening were attacked four hours after eating. 
1880. The Welbeck Epidemic, due to eating cold boiled ham. Over 
fifty persons affected. Symptoms commenced in from twelve to forty- 
eight hours. 
1881. A Series of Cases of Poisoning from eating Baked Pork, 
Nottingham. —Probably the gravy was the cause and not the pork 
itself. Many persons seriously ill. One died. 
1881. Tinned American Sausage. —A man in Chester died from 
eating tinned American sausage. Poison found to be unequally distri¬ 
buted in the sausage. 
1882. Poisoning at Oldham by Tinned Pigs’ Tongues.— Two families 
affected. Symptoms commenced in about four hours. All recovered. 
After a few days’ keeping it would appear that the poison had been 
decomposed. 
1882. A Family poisoned by Roast Beef at Bishop Stortford.— 
Only a particular piece of the ribs seemed to be poisonous, the rest of 
the carcase being innocuous. Symptoms did not commence until 
several hours after ingestion. 
1882. Ten different Families at Whitchurch poisoned by eating 
Brawn. —First symptoms after about four hours. 
1884. Tinned Salmon at Wolverhampton.— Five persons, two being 
children, ate of tinned salmon at Wolverhampton. All suffered more or 
less. The mother’s symptoms began after twelve hours, and she died in 
five days ; the son died in three days, the symptoms commencing in ten 
hours. The post-mortem signs were similar to those from phosphorus 
poisoning, viz. fatty degeneration. Mice fed on the material also 
suffered, and their organs showed a similar degeneration. 
1886. The Carlisle A Case. —At a wedding breakfast in Carlisle 
