16 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE OYSTER. 



and its body mashed up with the Hquor contained in the shell . 

 and about 34 to 3^ c.c. of the liquor and the oyster tissue was removed 

 l3y means of a freshly made capillary pipette and introduced into a 

 phenolated broth tube which was incubated at 37° C for 24 hours." 

 If growth occurred the culture was plated and the suspicious colonies 

 fished and studied in pure culture. This method allowed no compari- 

 son between the bacterial content of the shell liquor and the "oyster 

 tissue." Besides it did not allow a determination of the number of 

 colon bacilli in the whole oyster nor per unit volume. Moreover, 

 we have no evidence that any part of the oyster tissue except the 

 epithelium of the outside of the body and the lining of the alimentary 

 tract contain bacteria and this large amount (in comparison to the 

 amount of shell liquor) of finely divided tissue — for it must have been 

 finely divided to have been taken up in a capillary pipette — would 

 interfere greatly, if one tried to obtain an accurate count. 



Chantemesse, in June, 1896, reported to the Academic de Medicine, 

 Paris, his observations on the relation of oysters to disease. In the 

 article presented at this meeting he does not give the details of his 

 technique, but says the shell liquor and the bodies of the oysters were 

 submitted to a bacteriological examination and B. coli w^ere found. 



The next important investigation after that of Klein is the work of 

 Herdmann and Boyce.^ A great number of experiments were per- 

 formed on the chemistry and biology and also on the bacteriology 

 of the oyster. Only a small part of their work related to the presence 

 of B. coli in normal oysters. For this work the stomach contents 

 were used. The following is quoted from their report : — • 



"The method of analysis consisted in first cauterizing the mantle 

 over the region of the stomach and then inserting a fine sterilized 

 glass pipette, the pipette was moved about and when sufficient of 

 the contents of the stomach and the juice had risen in the pipette, 

 the latter was removed and its contents transferred to liquified agar, 

 ordinary gelatine or sea-water gelatine and plate cultivations made." 



Apparently no attempt was made to determine the number of colon 

 bacilli either per unit quantity or in the contents of the stomach as a 

 whole. 



The next important investigation we have noted is the work of Dr. 

 Houston.^ Dr. Houston's method of analysis is as folloAvs: — 



Kl) Lancashire Sea Fisheries Memoir No. 1. (2) Proceedings of Royal Society, 1899. (3) 

 Thompson Yates Lab. Rpt. 1-2. 



^Fourth Report of Royal Sewage Commission. Vol. Ill, 1904 



