CHAPTER XI 



BIVALVES IN RELATION TO DISEASE 



ECENTLY great popular interest has been 

 awakened in regard to shell-fish, and par- 

 ticularly oysters, as carriers of the micro- 

 organisms that cause certain human diseases. 

 The daily press, and especially popular magazines, have 

 published numerous articles that might well have proved 

 to be disquieting, on the dangerous conditions existing 

 on oyster beds or in waters in which oysters are stored 

 or freshened. On the other hand, some claiming to be 

 competent authorities, have publicly stated with much 

 positiveness that oysters cannot transmit diseases, and it 

 may well puzzle the average reader to know where the 

 truth lies. Because oysters are so highly prized, and are 

 so generally consumed uncooked, the matter of the pos- 

 sible danger that may lie in them has excited a growing 

 desire to know the facts. 



Newspaper and magazine science should be received 

 with caution and discrimination, but it now happens very 

 much more frequently than formerly that popular 

 scientific articles are prepared with due regard to matters 

 of fact, and are sometimes presented by eminent author- 

 ities. Though much that has been written on the possi- 

 bility of the contamination of oysters and clams may 

 have had the appearance of exaggeration, the truth has 

 usually been stated. One human disease at least, greatly 



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