172 Our Food Mollusks 



our lettuce and celery. Flies and mosquitoes that we can- 

 not escape have become more deadly than serpents. We 

 cannot keep the dust from our houses, and are assured 

 that germs lurk in it. The church, the theater, the cars 

 are germ-laden, and we are not able to draw a comfort- 

 able breath. Away with such nonsense ! We must live, 

 and the germ theorists are trying to make existence im- 

 possible." 



But there is little advantage in trying to hide from the 

 fact that recognized dangers to health and life are more 

 numerous than they were in former times. The cheer- 

 ful thing about it is that such knowledge has revealed 

 so many avenues of escape from them that were before 

 unknown. Some dangers of course remain to be faced, 

 but fear of them is ordinarily unwarrantable, and famili- 

 arity with them should not breed fear any more than con- 

 tempt, but only caution which, when it is habitually prac- 

 tised, ceases even to make one uncomfortable. It might 

 be supposed that even a dissection of the body of an 

 oyster would result in a loss of appetite for it as an 

 article of food, but expert testimony may easily be had 

 to the effect that this is not true; and knowledge of the 

 fact that some oysters carry typhoid bacilli does not alter 

 the flavor of unfreshened salt water individuals that one 

 is reasonably certain have come to his table directly from 

 deep waters far from shore. 



While every one must take some risks in eating and 

 drinking, there is little excuse for foolhardiness, and 

 precaution usually costs little. So far as oysters are con- 

 cerned, the reasonable person will even be willing to do 

 what he can to assure himself of the source from which 

 they come, and will require a statement from the packer 

 who supplies his retail dealer concerning the position of 



