PTOMAINE POISONING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 42, 18 January 1938, Page 2

PTOMAINE POISONING.

107 PERSONS STRICKEN. SANDWICHES AT PICNIC. SYDNEY, Ja.n. 3. Some people who contracted ptomaine poisoning at the Major s Creek residents’ New Year’s Day picnic on Saturday, after eating corned meat .sandwiches, were reported last night to be out of danger. Nearly all of the 150 people at the picnic were poisoned and 107 of them had to have hospital treatment. The sufferers were taken to Braidwood, which is 12 miles from Major s Creek, but the townships hospital could take only a small proportion of them. When temporary wards set up in the hospital grounds proved inadequate, the sisters of the Braidwood Convent converted their school hall into a hospital and took the remaining Pa Dr. n Harris, the only doctor in Braidwood, was absent in Goulburn, o2 miles away, when the people fell ill, but he returned with all speed and worked on; the patients until he was on the point of collapse from exhaustion. Ambulances came from Goulburn, Yass an< Ou-eanbevan, the nurses from the bou - burn Hospital and V.A.D. Sisters were sent out to assist. MEAT COOKED IN COPPER. A large quantity of corned meat for the picnic was cooked in a laundiy copper and afterwards it was put through a mincer and then kept m aluminium containers until those in charge of the foodstuffs for the picnic were able to make the thousands of sandwiches required. The sandwiches and other foods were served to the 150 picnickers about noon. Less than an hour afterwards many of the picnickers were seized with abdominal pain. The first to collapse was Constable Burr, and within a few minutes scores of picnickers, adults and children, were rolling about the grass writhing in agony. Mr S. Turnbull, licensee of the hotel, drove his car into Braidwood for help. Sergeant "White and Constable Snow . motored out to the picnic ground, and an urgent call to Dr Harris brought him back immediately to Braidwood. Sergeant White took a sister from the Braidwood Hospital to the picnic ground and she, with the aid of the police, gave most of the sufferers an emetic. Sergeant White mustered every car and lorry available to convey the sufferers into Braidwood. ‘ DOCTORS STAND BY.

The position looked very serious when mnny of the victims showed signs of internal hemorrhage, and the situation was alarming wlien no more patients could be taken at the Braidwood Hospital. Dr Harris and the nurses from Goulburn arrived at this juncture. Although doctors at Goulburn and other centres were standing by ready to rush to Braidwood, Dr Harris assured Sergeant White that he could handle the situation without help from other doctors. All night the patients were under the constant care of the nurses and by yesterday morning 22 had recovered sufficiently 'to be discharged. Sergeant White, after making exhaustive inquiries into the possible causes of the gathering being affected by ptomaine poison, said that he was convinced ‘that the corned beef was to blame.