The dangerous microbe in shellfish with which we are 

 chiefly concerned is, of course, the Bacillus typhosus. It is 

 not, as we shall see later, the only dangerous microbe, but it 

 certainly is the chief one, because infection with it, as 

 mentioned above, has hitherto been of somewhat conspicuous- 

 frequency, and it is chiefly this microbe, i.e., the microbe of 

 typhoid or enteric fever, that need occupy us here. 



In the experiments which I conducted for the Local 

 Government Board, " Oyster Culture in Eelation to Disease," 

 1894-1895 (pp. 116-120), oysters were kept in sea water 

 infected with the B. typhosus, and it was found that this 

 microbe was recovered from the interior of some of the 

 oysters as late as 18 days after infection. 



Professor Herdman in 1895 states (Eeport on the 

 Lancashire Sea Fisheries) that in the case of oysters grown 

 in water infected with B. typhosus it was found that there 

 was no apparent increase of the organisms, but that they 

 could still be identified in cultures taken from the water of 

 the pallial cavity and rectum 14 days after infection. 



Dr. Chantemesse (Proceedings of the Academic de 

 Medicine of Paris, June (?) 1896) placed oysters for 24 hours 

 in sea water intentionally infected with B. typhosus, then 

 kept them for 24 hours out of this water ; examining them 

 after the lapse of this time, he found in the liquor and in 

 their bodies B. typhosus. 



Herdman and Boyce in a series of experiments conducted 

 with oysters infected with B. typhosus (Oysters and 

 Disease, Thompson Yates Laboratories, Vol. II, 1898-1899, 

 Lancashire Sea Fisheries, Memo. No. 1) summarise, p. 54, 

 their results thus : " In our experimental oysters inoculated 

 with typhoid we were able to recover the organism from the 

 body of the oyster up to the tenth day. We show that the 

 typhoid bacillus does not increase in the body or in the 

 tissues of the oyster, and our figures indicate that the bacilli 

 perish in the intestine." 



Most observers are agreed that the typhoid bacillus does 

 not multiply within the oyster, and is gradually destroyed or 

 eliminated when the oyster is placed in clean sea water, 



