28 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE OYSTER. 



From these experiments and the conclusions drawn it is clear that 

 Dr. Houston thought that all the bacteria on the outside of the oysters 

 were washed off with the sterile water used to wash the bodies of the 

 oysters and that all the organisms found in the minced oysters came 

 from the stomach. Whether we can accept Dr. Houston's supposition 

 or not will be discussed later under the writer's own experiments in 

 this connection. 



Stiles in the bulletin referred to above made some analyses showing 

 the relative numbers of bacteria in the shell liquor and meat of 

 oysters. He concludes: "The results show that the oyster liquor in 

 these samples contained more than seven times as many organisms per 

 given volume as did the minced meat and body contents of the same 

 oysters. The results further show that the liquor contained eight 

 times as many B. coli per cubid centimeter as the minced meat." 



Stiles does not give his method of determining the number of bacteria 

 in the minced body of the oyster. It may well be that his results 

 actually do show the relative numbers of bacteria in the two parts of 

 the oyster. His experiments included the results of only fifteen 

 analyses, and the results uniformally show a greater number of 

 bacteria in the shell liquor than in the minced body meat. In the 

 light of the writer's results of similar analyses, however, we are led 

 to believe that the method of analysis is not adequate to demonstrate 

 the relative number of bacteria in the two parts of the oyster. It is 

 conceded by all that the tissues of the oyster are sterile. It is only 

 the outside of the body and the alimentary tract which normally 

 harbor bacteria. It is easy to understand how so much minced 

 tissue will interfere with accurate results. Secondly no mention is 

 made of how the bacteria were separated from the minced meat. An 

 immense amount of shaking would be necessary to make an even 

 suspension of bacteria if one tried to wash them from the minced 

 particles of the oyster meat. The bacteria are attached to the body 

 of the oyster by the mucus which is not easily removed. Even though 

 the minced oysters were shaken vigorously in water or salt solution, 

 the particles would quickly settle out and being more or less entangled 

 in the mucus a coagulum would be formed which setthng out rapidly 

 would take a great many if not most of the bacteria out of suspension. 

 This is purely suppositional since the method of analysis is not given, 

 but this is a perfectly logical method of procedure and a very probable 

 explanation of the results. The temperature of the water from which 

 the oysters were taken is not given. In the writer's opinion this is 



