Spinach and iron: Did Hamblin really do something in the British Medical Journal about this?

Question:

I'm trying to track down the iron--spinach story. All over the web is
this story about von Wolf (or, in some sites, de Wolf) finding spiniach had lots of iron, but he was wrong. Consider wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach):

"The myth about spinach and its high iron content may have first been propagated by Dr. E. von Wolf in 1870, because a misplaced decimal point in his publication led to an iron-content figure that was ten times too high. In 1937, German chemists reinvestigated this "miracle vegetable" and corrected the mistake. It was described by T.J. Hamblin in British Medical Journal, December 1981."

Stacks of web sites say just this: Hamblin described it in BMJ Dec 1981. Did he?

I'm trying to trace this article by Hamblin, mentioned everywhere
in this context. I only found one article by Hamblin in the BMJ in
Dec 1981, and it doesn't seem to be about spinach!

Can anyone clarify, direct me to the specific reference, or help
me find out the true story?

Answers:
Search for BMJ online only goes back to 1994
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/search.dtl

These websites mention the article by T. J. Hamblin in the BMJ December 1981
http://spinach.iqnaut.net/
http://www.hexafind.com/encyclopedia/Spinach
http://encyclopedia.codeboy.net/wikipedia/s/sp/spinach.html

Since you searched that issue of the BMJ perhaps all the websites are not verifying their sources.

top ten iron rich foods

· clams, cooked, 3 oz (23.8 mg)
· tofu, 1/2 cup firm (13.2 mg)
· raisin bran, ready-to-eat, 3/4 cup (4.5 mg)
· sirloin steak, cooked, 3 oz (2.9 mg)
· shrimp, cooked, 3 oz (2.6 mg)
· black beans, boiled, 1/2 cup (1.8 mg)
· chickpeas, canned, 1/2 cup (1.6 mg)
· turkey breast, 3 oz (0.9 mg)
· bread, whole wheat, 1 slice (0.9 mg)
· chicken breast, skinless, 1/2 breast (0.9 mg)

Source(s):
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/search.dtl
http://spinach.iqnaut.net/
http://www.hexafind.com/encyclopedia/Spinach
http://www.breastflap.com/iron_foods.htm

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Spinach and iron: Did Hamblin really do something in the British Medical Journal about this?

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