40 OYSTERS AND DISEASE. 



What is really required is — 



1st. That some central, or local, Authority should inspect and license the oyster 

 beds and layings, and that without such license, no oysters should be 

 sold* ; and 

 2nd. That all those who cultivate and those who sell oysters should exercise 

 ordinary common sense, and elementary notions of decent cleanliness, in their 

 responsible position as purveyors of an important and nutritious article of 

 diet. 

 Mr. C. E. Fryer, in the recently published 12th Annual Report of the Sea Fisheries 

 Inspectors for England and Wales, discusses this question, and points out the difficulties 

 in the way of preventing polluted oysters being shipped from unlicensed to licensed 

 beds, and in regulating the importation of foreign oysters. However, as he himself states, 

 these difficulties are not insurmountable. 



We quite agree with Mr. Fryer's further remark, that whatever precautions and 

 regulations are adopted for preventing the distribution of contaminated shellfish, they 

 ought to include measures for duly apportioning among the various parties concerned 

 (such as those interested in the drains as well as those interested in the oysters) the 

 responsibility for the contamination. 



* Since the above was written, an Oyster Bill has been laid before Parliament, which, although capable 

 of improvement in some details, does much to meet the present difficulties. 



