Medicine: Death in Cans

The day had been stifling, so chilled vichyssoise straight from the can seemed like the perfect dish when Banker Sam Cochran, 61, and his wife Grace, 63, sat down to dinner at their Bedford Village, N.Y., home a fortnight ago. But they did not finish their shallow bowls of cold soup. It tasted spoiled, Mrs. Cochran later told their doctor.

Proper Precaution. It was. By 8 the following morning, Cochran complained of double vision. Shortly thereafter, he began to have trouble speaking. By the time he was admitted to a hospital later that afternoon,...