1^ 



Oyster Memoir and Oyster Bill. 

 (W. A. Herdman.) 



The work 1 have been doing at intervals during the last 

 few years, along with my colleague Professor Boyce, upon 

 oysters and their supposed connection with disease in 

 man having come to a conclusion, the Committee have 

 printed and issued an account of the investigation as a 

 thin quarto volume* of about 60 pages and 8 partly coloured 

 plates, under the heading of " Lancashire Sea-Fisheries 

 Memoir No. I." I hope it may be regarded as creditable 

 to the Committee to have undertaken the publication, in 

 this manner, of researches which add to our knowledge of 

 an important shell-fish, and have a bearing upon public 

 health questions, upon proposed legislation, and upon 

 valuable fishing industries.! 



As this Oyster Memoir has recently been sent to all 

 members of the Committee, I need not refer to it further 

 than to say that it brought out clearly the need of some 

 control of the oyster trade in order that injurious oysters 

 might not be offered for sale. Two events have recently 

 occurred, either of which might lead to the effective con- 

 trol required. These are the formation of the Oyster 

 Industries Association and the introduction of an Oyster 

 Bill into the House of Lords by Lord Harris. The Bill 

 met with considerable criticism, and was referred to a 

 Select Committee of the House, which reported in July ; 

 but the Bill was eventually dropped. It is to be hoped 



* " Oysters and Disease," published by Geo, Philip and Son, Loudon and 

 Liverpool, 1899 ; price 7s. tjd. net. 



t It may serve to remove in part the reproacli levelled against the Sea- 

 Fisheries Committees when, in the evidence given last June before Lord 

 Harris's Select Committee on the Oyster Bill, it was said by the medical 

 authorities at the Local Government Board, that these Committees had never 

 done anything to investigate the sanitary condition of our fisheries. 



