February 2 1, 1895] 



NATURE 



591 



the shocks exiended to the region of the Trondhjems fjord, the 

 Swedish border, and the Christiania fjoid, and Berg-n, but 

 the extpcnie fou hwest pait of the country seems to 

 have been undi-lurbed. The earthquake is also reported 

 from Fiinen, in Denmark. The movement proceeded in 

 about seven minutes from the west coa-t to Chiistiama (at 

 Chrisiian-und iih. 38m. Chiisliania time, iih. 1501. Green- 

 wich lime) It is inlerfStinu to notice that the earthquake 

 re=emblcs one which occurred on March 9, 1866, and was 

 felt across the North Sea at ihe lijjhthouse of Flug^arrock, 

 on the SheilanI Islands. As I am engaged in collecting daia 

 aboul the earthquake of this month, I should be glad to know 

 whether it wosobseived in the British Isles. 

 Christiani-i, February 11. Haxs Reusch. 



"The Black-veined White Butterfly." 



My experience of this species in Eng'and enables me to 

 support Mr. W. Warde Fowler's opinion (Nature, February 14, 

 p. 367) as to the preference of the spec es for o' en ground. I 

 met with it in almndance in the New Foic t in 1S66 1868, 1869, 

 and 1870. It rarely occurred in or near dense woorls, but preierred 

 the open heaths and wastes of the For st, where thistles were 

 plentilul. In 1S67 I four d ihespecies swarming, about mid-ura- 

 mer, in hay fields on 1 ill-sides in Montrou'hi-hnr. Tlieie weie a 

 few sm ill orchards, but not much wood, in the nei^hbouihond. 

 For a detailed account olthe ioxmtx A\'i,\\\\t\Avin oi A poria craisgi 

 in this country, I would refer Mr. Warde Fowler to my ariicle 

 on the subject in the Entomologists Monthly Magazine for 

 March 18S7. H. Goss. 



Surbiton Hill, March 16. 



The Zodiacal Light. 



At the present moment— 7 p m. February 16 — the zodiacal 

 light is more distinct than I ever remember to have seen it in 

 England. The middle of the base is about 2° to the northward 

 of the point where the sun set, and the axis is directed towards 

 the Pleiades, and can be traced as far as the middle of Aries. 

 I The afternoon has been remarkably clear, and it is now a bril- 

 I liant starlight evening. J. P. Maclear. 



Cranlei^h, Surrey, February 16. 



OYSTERS AND TYPHOID. 



'pHE statements that have recently appeared, both in 

 ■'■ the gener,il and in the medical press, concerning 

 the communication of typhoid fever thiough the agency 

 of oysters when eaten raw, make it desirable to review 

 some of the data on which the suspicion in question is 

 based. For many years past it has been a matter 

 of assumption, when typhoid fever has followed, 

 within some ten to fifteen days, on the consumption of 

 raw oysters, and when no obvious cause for the disease 

 could be detected, that the oysters stood to the fever in 

 the relation of cause ; and this attitude received no in- 

 considerable impc us when, a few years ago, a member 

 of our Royal family sickened of typhoid fever under 

 circumstances that were suggestive of oysters as the 

 vehicle of the disease. Then again, it must be admitted 

 that it has been a matter of no very uncommon ex- 

 perience amongst medical men to have to treat typhoid 

 fever in patients who, at an antecedent date correspond- 

 ing with the incubation period of typhoid fever, had 

 indulged in an oyster supper after leaving some place of 

 entertainment. And the suspicion has been confirmed, 

 in some cases, when it has been ascertained that another 

 member of the same party, having nothing but the oyster 

 supper, in common with the sufferer referred to, has also 

 had typhoid fever about the sune date, or had suffered 

 from vomiting and other symptoms the day after the 

 consumption of the oysters. The assumption in cases 

 of this latter class has been, that the specific poison of 

 typhoid fever was, with other matter that had become 

 objectionable to the system, got rid of by the attack of 

 sickness. A case generally illustrative of this class of 

 ■occurrence was rejencly recorded in the British Medical 



NO. 1321, VOL. 51] 



Journal. Four friends had an oyster supper on November 

 5. Two of them lived not far apart, but the others had 

 nothing in common as regards residence or an) thing else. 

 On November 23 three of them sickened, and they were, 

 later on, all found to have typhoid fever. Ore of the 

 patients, during convalescence, disclosed both his 

 profession and his views by re-naming his malady 

 " bivalvular disease." 



Amongst leading medica'i men who have adopted the 

 view that oyster* are a source of typhoid fever, we may 

 name Sir William Broadbent, who early this year 

 announced that from time to time he had seen cases of 

 typhoid fever "apparently attributable to oysters,'' but 

 that during the course of last autumn the evidence as to 

 the communication of the infection through this agency 

 has been of such a character as to produce "convic- 

 tion " in his mind. 



This naturally leads us to ask how the oyster becomes 

 the vehicle of such a disease ; and the evidence already 

 forthcoming on this point is such that we could only 

 wonder if typhoid fever were not occasionally conveyed 

 to those who eat this favourite mollusc in an uncooked 

 foriTi. Investigation of some of the river estuaries and 

 other places where oysters are cultivated and prepared 

 for market, would almost lead us to believe that con- 

 ditions favourable to typhoid fever were deliberately 

 chosen for the purpose. Indeed, it is notorious that a 

 number of our British oyster-beds are in such relation 

 to sewer outfalls, that the oysters must of necessity be 

 bathed in a solution of sea-water and sewage at every 

 tide. According to a commissioner appointed to inquire 

 into this matter by the British Medical Journal, a well- 

 known Essex oyster fishery has " a sewer discharging be- 

 tween oyster-beds on either side " ; and at a " health- 

 resort " (!) on the same coast, it is a common practice to 

 moor the oy ster-bo.\es to a pier or groyne, within a few feet 

 of which the evidences of sewage are too palpable to be 

 specified. In both the places referred to, the typhoid 

 fever poison, which it is known finds access to drains, 

 had had ample chance of foulirg the sewers in question. 



It has been alleged, on the evidence of certain recent 

 bacteriological investigations as regards the contents of 

 London sewers, that the organism producing typhoid 

 fever cannot live and multiply in sewers. But the 

 organism has been found in sewers ; it also lives 

 in sea-water ; and the fact remains that sewage bathes 

 our oysters during cultivation to an extent that is 

 essentially disagreeable, and that ought not to take 

 place ; and, also, that typhoid fever follows the use of 

 oysters so cultivated. It may also be alleged, as is done 

 by certain oyster-growers, that sewage is fatal to the 

 oyster itself. In answer to this, we can only say that 

 such evidence as we have obtained, as to some of our 

 oyster-beds, is absolutely opposed to this statement ; and 

 not only so, but we know of more than one instance 

 where the oysters are deliberately brought from the beds 

 to fatten in still nearer proximity to outfall sewers for a 

 week or more preliminary to their sale. In brief, if 

 sewage and noxious mitrd-organisms can be retained in 

 the beard and other portions of the oyster, or in the 

 "juice," which is so much relished, everything seems 

 contrived to secure such retention of filth at some of our 

 oyster fisheries. 



Doubtless the same applies to many foreign oyster- 

 beds. Indeed, the recent experience embodied in a 

 report by Prof. W. N. Conn, as to an epidemic of typhoid 

 fever amongst the students of a college at Middletown, 

 Connecticut, not only supplies convincing evidence of 

 this, but it affords the most connected and complete 

 proof of "oyster-typhoid" as yet published. Quite an 

 epidemic of typhoid fever occurred amongst the students 

 of certain fraternities, and amongst a number of their 

 friends who had Joined them at their " initiation sup- 

 pers," but who had subsequently returned to their distant 



