THE WHOLESOMENESS OF OYSTERS AS FOOD. 267 
In addition to the preceding comparison, no bacilli of tuberculosis, diph- 
theria,.or any other disease have been found in oysters, and there has been no 
case, even of circumstantial evidence, showing that cooked oysters have caused 
typhoid fever, or any other disease, except possibly ptomaine poisoning, which 
may occur in any one of hundreds of foods if proper care is not exercised. It is 
conceded, however, that proper cooking will destroy bacilli in oysters if any do 
exist. 
The limits of this paper forbid the introduction of a vast amount of available 
evidence along these lines, but it is clear that compared with the conclusive proof 
of the occasional danger in the use of milk and water, the evidence against the 
wholesomeness of oysters is so trifling as to be negligible. Let me repeat that I 
do not urge or imply the disuse of milk and water, but merely use a comparison 
with which we are all familiar, and I believe it is clear that so long as milk and 
water are freely and universally partaken of it is unreasonable to harbor the 
least prejudice against oysters as a food. 
