28 SEWAGE-POLLUTED OYSTERS AS CAUSE OF TYPHOID. 



GASTROENTERITIS (DIARRHEA). 



Minisink banquet 83 



Schoolmasters' banquet (including 1 hotel guest) ' 



Washington, D.C 2 



Total.., 99 



Total number of cases of typhoid and diarrhea 126 



In the case at Suffern, N. Y., raw oysters were eaten within the 

 proper incubation period from the same lot as were shipped to Goshen 

 on October 3, 1911. As far as could be ascertained all the other 

 oysters sold from this same shipment were cooked before eating; 

 however, there were said to have been a number of cases of diarrhea 

 reported in this town during October, and three or four cases of 

 typhoid outside of the town concerning which no information was 

 obtained. Figure 4 sets forth these data in graphic form. 



INSANITARY CONDITION OF JAMAICA BAY. 

 PREVIOUS REPORTS. 



Oysters from Jamaica Bay are generally sold under the name 

 "Rockaways." This designation appears on the menu cards at 

 hotels and restaurants where they are served; thus they are known 

 to the consuming public as "Rockaway" oysters. The insanitary 

 condition of Jamaica Bay and vicinity was fully set forth by Porter 1 

 in 1908; however, no steps appear to have been taken to prevent the 

 sale of these contaminated oysters, or prevent further pollution of the 

 waters of this bay. The practice of floating oysters in polluted 

 waters at Inwood and Indian Creek was also apparently known to 

 have existed, but no action was taken to stop this dangerous pro- 

 cedure. In the present report reference is made to the Lawrence 

 investigations, in which it was shown by Soper in 1904 that 21 out of 31 

 cases of tvphoid fever were traced to oysters floated at Inwood, Long 

 Island, N. Y. 



In speaking of the floats from which these oysters were taken, that 

 report says: 



That the waters in which these floats were located were badly polluted was amply 

 demonstrated by the chemical and bacteriological examinations made at a time when 

 conditions were known to be far better than when the cases of the disease developed. 

 Samples of oysters were likewise examined bacteriologically, and of them 25 per cent 

 were shown to contain certain bacteria of the Bacillus coli communis type in one- 

 tenth of a cubic centimeter of the shell water, and 'in 60 per cent in 1 cubic centi- 

 meter of the same. 



The sanitary survey showed the discharge of imperfectly treated sewage, from a 

 population of 15,000, less than half a mile from the oyster floats; in fact, some were 

 very much nearer. Aside from this pollution, there were many individual sewers, 

 manure piles, dump heaps, piles of cesspool sludge, which contributed to the pollution 

 of the water adjacent to the floats. 



i Porter, Eugene II. Sanitary inspection of shellfish grounds. (New York State Board of Health, 29th 

 Ann. Kept., 1908, 833-864.) 



