Armstrong – Table of Contents

manuscript as the “Sebring table”. The two waiters who attended the table and the chef
were also affected.
Following appropriate and accepted epidemiological practice, Armstrong described the
menu of foods served at the banquet: cantelope, turkey, turkey stuffing, tomatoes and
mayonnaise, crackers, scalloped corn and pimentos, browned potatoes, green olives,
celery and pickles, rolls, butter, ice cream, cake, water and coffee. The Sebring table
received the above foods with the exception of the green olives, celery and pickles. In
place of these foods, the waiters served the Sebring table ripe olives, chocolate candy,
Newport creams, and candied almonds, all of which were furnished by the hostess.
Armstrong took a detailed food history from among the ill persons who ate at the Sebring
table. He asked specifically about each food item eaten at the table. Suspicion fell almost
immediately upon the ripe olives, furnished specifically by the hostess for her 18 guests,
as the cause of the illness. The waiters for this table set the olives out in three serving
dishes, placed at equal distances in the middle of a long rectangular table, separated by
flower arrangements in vases. The guests at this long table, in this manner, had easy
access to at least one dish containing the ripe olives. During the course of the dinner
various diners, who tasted the olives, commented on peculiarities of the taste, odor and
consistency of the olives with a variety of uncomplimentary terms. Memory refreshment
occurred about the quantity of olives eaten by the various diners when suspicion arose
that olives might have been the cause of the illness following the dinner. Of the 14
persons who became ill, all had eaten the olives. Some of the guests who did not become
ill apparently tasted but did not eat the olives. There was a rough correlation among the 7
fatal cases between the hours elapsed from the dinner to death and the number of olives