2 THRESH : OYSTERS AS DISSEMINATORS OF DISEASE. 



from beds which were certainly contaminated with sewage. The 

 lull details, will shortly be published by the Medical Officer of 

 the Local Government Board. 



The first epidemic of Typhoid Fever attributed to the 

 eating of Oysters occurred in October last in America. An 

 outbreak of Typhoid occurred amongst the students of the 

 Wesleyan College, Middletown, Connecticut, and its origin was 

 fully investigated by Professor Conn. He found that on 

 October 12th, the several fraternities of students had held their 

 annual invitation supper. The attacks were limited to three 

 fraternities wlio alone had partaken of oysters. Certain visitors 

 had sat at their tables, and it was discovered that several of 

 these had also been attacked. At the same time an outbreak of 

 Typhoid Fever occurred at Amherst College, and it was found 

 that the students there had had a supper on the same evening, 

 and had eaten oysters from the same source, as those supplied to 

 the Wesleyan College. Professor Conn's investigations seem to 

 prove conclusively that the Typhoid germs had been conveyed 

 by the oysters, and fortunately he was able to shew how the 

 bacilli gained access to the oysters. The bi-valves in question 

 came from a fresh-water estuary in which they had been laid to 

 fatten and within 400 feet of where they were laid was the ou'tfall 

 from a sewer from a private house, in which house there were 

 two patients suffering from T3'phoid Fever. As the bacilli 

 abound in the excreta of such patients, they Vvould be discharged 

 with the sewage near the oyster beds: some of them were 

 received within the shell of certain of the oysters and so were 

 conveyed into the alimentary canal of those who afterwards 

 suffered. 



When these details were published in the English Medical 

 papers, an epidemic of Typhoid Fever was in progress in the 

 West End of London which quite baffled the investigations of 

 the Medical Officers of Health. Suspicion at once rested upon 

 Oysters as a probable cause, and soon evidence was forthcoming 

 that tended to incriminate them, and on January 12th Sir W. 

 Broadbent, Physician to the Prince of Wales, published in the 

 British Medical Journal, details of a series of cases, which he said 

 he considered it his duty to make known, and which had con- 

 vinced him that Oysters were capable of disseminating Typhoid 

 Fever. Other cases have since been published and the evidence 

 is now such as to bring conviction to any unbiassed mind. 



Many (chiefly interested) persons have urged that Oysters 



