In the subsequent two or three years several outbreaks 

 of typhoid or enteric fever having been demonstrated to be 

 caused by the consumption of oysters derived from sewage- 

 polluted layings in America, in France, arid in England (see 

 Eeport of the M.O., " Oyster Culture and Disease," 1894- 

 1895, Appendix 3 and 4), the Local Government Board had 

 instituted in 1894-1895 a careful survey of all oyster beds- 

 and oyster ponds along the whole coast of England and 

 Wales ; the results of those investigations were published 

 in 1896 by the Medical Department of the Board as a separate 

 volume (" Oyster Culture and Disease "), and it will be seen 

 therein to what a large extent oysters are laid down and 

 stored in several places in England in a manner which must 

 be considered not only objectionable qua cleanliness per se > 

 but also must be instrumental in conveying occasionally 

 dangerous infection to those consuming them. 



Without intending to cite all those cases of typhoid fever 

 in which in single instances and in a small group of indi- 

 viduals who had partaken of oysters, mussels, or cockles, 

 derived from polluted localities (such as have been described 

 by various health officers Dr. Newsholme, Dr. Thresh, 

 Dr. Nash, Dr. Allen, and others), typhoid fever has been 

 demonstrated to have been caused by such shellfish, I will 

 mention the two instances only in which in recent years, to wit, 

 November 9, 1902, infection with typhoid fever by polluted 

 oysters has manifested itself in a somewhat dramatic fashion 

 and on a considerable scale I refer to the now historic 

 mayoral banquets at Winchester and Southampton. The 

 demonstration of this infection, of the derivation of the 

 typhoid oysters from sewage-polluted ponds at Emsworth, 

 are well known ; they have been well described by Dr. 

 Bulstrode in the annual report of the Medical Officer of the 

 Local Government Board, 1902-1903, pp. 129-189. Even 

 subsequent to these outbreaks, viz., during 1903 and 

 1904, cases of enteric fever have been traced in numerous 

 single instances to the consumption of polluted oysters or 

 polluted cockles (Dr. Collingridge, Dr. Allen, Dr. Buchanan, 

 and others), and it is common knowledge that, with the 



