THE WHOLESOMENESS OF OYSTERS AS FOOD. 263 
It has been claimed, perhaps truly, that there were formerly a few places 
where oysters were planted or floated that might be considered insanitary. 
While 1 bushel in 100,000 might be so situated, the other 99,999 are grown in 
the deep pure water of the great bays and sounds. In those cases where there 
was.suspected danger of insanitary effects, or even criticism, the great oyster- 
shipping firms voluntarily discontinued floating and shoring oysters, and the 
other shippers have been required by law to discontinue doing so. It is now 
forbidden to market any oysters from places that are not approved by the 
health authorities. But notwithstanding these facts, certain writers and 
reporters have continued to work this profitable vein of sensationalism. There 
was no definite statement that any typhoid fever germ had ever been found in 
an oyster, but there was a mass of insinuation and innuendo which wantonly 
injured a great industry. 
It is contrary to public policy that a food such as oysters, which are noted 
for their great palatability, easiness of digestion, and high food value, should 
be lightly thrown aside without any evidence worthy of being called such. 
Every thoughtful man is compelled often to recognize the prevalence of popular 
errors. Many of the accepted theories and beliefs of twenty years ago have 
been disproved by facts later ascertained, and some were consigned to the scrap 
heap within a tenth part of that period. Among these subjects the theories of 
the causes of disease and how to avoid them are no exception, and have had 
a history of many radical changes, in which imagination and notion have by no 
means been absent. Hence reason dictates that we should be slow to accept 
theories, even of thinking men, until clearly proved, and far more, that 
our opinions ought not to be influenced in the least degree by the waves of 
popular notion which are promulgated by the sensational press to supply the 
morbid hunger of the unthinking multitude for novelty and excitement. The 
president of Columbia University has aptly said: 
The daily press, with its hectic headlines and its guillotine-like opinions, assists us 
to form the habit of acting and judging without thinking. * * * A distorted and 
inaccurate account of some important happening will serve to fix our permanent atti- 
tude toward a man or an event, and we may never know how hopelessly inadequate 
or erroneous the grounds for that attitude are. 
Careful observation and examination lead to the conclusion that the recent 
attacks upon the healthfulness of oysters have little or no foundation in fact. 
The most prominent case in which positive statements were made that 
typhoid fever was contracted through the use of oysters was published in 
a New Jersey newspaper within che past year and copied from that news- 
paper throughout much of the United States and Canada. These statements 
were thus placed before millions of readers. It was stated that two persons, 
