Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 68
1
2 Q. I am not inviting to you to go into it in detail. I know
3 about antigens in the bloodstream for other forms of
4 infection and so on. I am not familiar with these.
5 Mr. Rampton brought to my attention gastric acid which you
6 agreed with. I wondered what other mechanisms of
7 protection the body had and my eye fell on a reference to
8 intestinal flora.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it might be worth, for completeness sake,
11 just reading the passage at the top of page 69 in tab 4
12 beginning with the first complete paragraph: "This
13 limitation". This is from the Journal of Medical
14 Microbiology in 1991. You see the first paragraph?
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, what are we on here?
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Tab 4, page 69, top right-hand corner.
19
20 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
21
22 MR. RAMPTON: Top of the right-hand column: "This limitation",
23 do you have it?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. "This limitation is generally, and probably correctly,
27 attributed", that is the limitation to food poisoning mode
28 symptomisation in human beings, I think, "to an inability
29 of small numbers (e.g. 1 to 1000) of swallowed bacteria to
30 overcome the defences of the alimentary canal and a need
31 for preliminary multiplication in a nutritious foodstuff to
32 yield a large enough oral dose (e.g. over", what is that,
33 "100,000" ---
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. -- "bacteria) to overcome these defences.
37
38 The defences include the bactericidal action of the usually
39 strongly acid (pH less than 3.0) gastric secretion, rapid
40 removal by peristalsis in the small intestine and the
41 antagonistic action of the commensal flora in the large
42 intestine", which I believe is what his Lordship is talking
43 about?
44 A. Yes, I believe that to be true. The only slight
45 hesitation is that when you know this subject very well you
46 find that whatever statement is made, you can virtually
47 always find somebody else who said exactly the opposite or
48 disagrees.
49
50 Q. I know, but these are statements made by you in an article?
51 A. This what I believe to be the case.
52
53 Q. Mr. North, do not think that you are falling into traps.
54 I am not, as his Lordship knows, one of those to make silk
55 purses out of sows' ears.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It just is a question of learning something
58 about it, apart from anything else.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: We all know that there is one point of view
