The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-26

of the sufferings and death of his clients.
says Pearson's Weekly.
About five years ago, nearly a score of
people were badly poisoned after dining
in the restaurant of well known West
Central hotel in London, and although the
source of the poison was never accurately
traced-all that was discovered being that
it was some form of ptomaine poisoning
yet to this day that restaurant has hardly
recovered it's former popularity.
More recently a blunder was made in an
East End fried Ash shop. Engine oil was.
in some extraordinary fashion. substi-
tuted for the cotton seed oil which is COM
monty used for frying fish. This mistake
proved absolutely fatal to the business,
and after time the proprietor was forced
to close his doors.
Oddly enough, very similar incident
has just come to light in another large
town. On the morning of March last, a
baker made the alarming discovery that
the vegetable oil which he had used in
making his fancy bread and pastry over
night had been delivered to him in a bar
rel which had been previously used for
storing Kerosene
The moment he heard of the blunder he
rushed off and engaged the services of six
doctors and a dozen carts. The carts were
sent round the town to retrieve the bad
bake, while the doctors gave their services
free to any customers who had already
partaken of the poisoned food.
Most readers will remember the arsenic
in beer epidemic of 1902 This was the
lfaaoe N record
was four months before the authorities
realized what the matter was, and by
that time there were over 1000 cases in five
counties and 81 deaths had taken place.
The source of all the trouble was a min
ute quantity of arsenic in the beer sup
piled by Manchester brewer. 1t was no
faultNof the firm, for analysis of the
LIQUOR showed that the arsenic originally
came from glucose which had been made
with impure supErric acid. 1t was the
acid which contained the arsenic.
In the year following the great arsenic
poisoning came the oyster scare There
were outbreaks of typhoid fever at Win
chester and at Portsmouth. Tie fever
was traced to oysters, and the result we 5
that for some time oysters were almost
unsaleable. One big oyster firm which
had been paying &l5O a week in wages
dropped to els a week, and 1t is reckoned
that oyster merchants throughout the
country must have lost at least e100, 900.
Confectoners have to exercise the very
greatest care, as witness case occur
ring at Preston some few years ago. An
inquest was neld on the body of a IL
year-old boy who had died after eating
sweets.
It appeared that tin spoons We're sold
with these sweets, and that one of these
spoons had curroded, forming poisonous
mixture. The result was not only the ab-
solute extinction OF this particular form
of sweet. but a temporary boycott of the
shop where Ii was sold.
What is without doubt the most expen-
sive blunder ever committed by any trad
ing organization of late years stands 10
the discredt of the Glucose trust, whi ii
is controlled by the Standard Oil com
rany. This company makes sweets on a
large scale and at one time made them
of glucose idulterated with ponsonous sui
phites. AS coon as these were on the MAJ
ket the unfortunate retailers were assailed
on all sides hy actions for damages.
They. in turn, sued the trust, and the
latter had TO pay out a lump sum of over
a1000o0.