40 SHELLFISH CONTAMINATION FROM SEWAGE-POLLUTED WATERS. 



COLLATED OPINIONS ON SEWAGE CONTAMINATION. 



TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE BY INFECTED SHELLFISH. 



Many workers in this country and in Europe have shown by their 

 researches that shellfish may become contaminated from polluted 

 waters and that serious consequences follow ingestion of such food 

 when consumed uncooked. In this connection it is a noteworthy 

 fact that many of the recorded epidemics of typhoid fever arising 

 from consuming infected shellfish were from oysters which had been 

 subjected to the process of "floating" or " drinking" before being 

 offered for sale. 



In his report on shellfish pollution, Fuller 25 credits Dr. Pasquier ? 

 a French physician, in 1816, as having first reported an epidemic of 

 typhoid fever due to eating oysters which had been laid down in an 

 old citadel where sewage had been discharged for centuries. Fuller 

 cites other cases as follows : 



In Great Britain during the cholera epidemic in 1849 an outbreak of this disease 

 occurred which was considered due to the consumption of condemned oysters; they 

 were, nevertheless, given to school children. 



All the members of a supper party of seven at Truro, England (1897), became ill 

 either from typhoid or gastroenteritis due to eating oysters taken from a source 

 known to be polluted. 



At St. Andre de Sangonis, France, Dr. Chantemesse reported 14 cases of typhoid 

 and gastroenteritis from six families who ate sewage-polluted oysters. 



From 1894 to 1902, Dr. Newsholme, Brighton, England, investigated 643 cases of 

 typhoid fever. He found 158 cases directly ascribable to the consumption of oysters 

 from sources subsequently proven to be polluted. 



At Manchester, England, from 1897 to 1902, Dr. Niven ascribed 118 cases from a 

 total of 2,664 cases of typhoid to oysters and mussels, and 156 more cases were asso- 

 ciated with the consumption of other shellfish . 



The Atlantic City epidemic of typhoid during the summer of 1902 was traceable 

 to oysters and clams "freshened" in sewage-polluted waters. 



The investigations of Dr. Soper in 1904 showed that two-thirds of 31 cases of typhoid 

 reported at Lawrence, L. I., were traceable to shellfish taken from polluted sources. 



One of the most important and widely known outbreaks of typhoid 

 in recent years due to eating infected oysters occurred at the Wes- 

 leyan University, October 12, 1894, at Middletown, Conn. The evi- 

 dence presented by Professor Conn 15 in his report on this out- 

 break showed most conclusively that the 23 cases of typhoid which 

 appeared among the 100 students and guests at their fraternity 

 banquets were due to eating infected oysters which had been "fat- 

 tened" within 300 feet of the outlets of private sewers. He concludes 

 his report by saying : 



Doubtless many cases of mysterious typhoid have been due to such a cause. To 

 trace these is a matter of extreme difficulty. The peculiar conditions which have 

 occurred here have been such, however, as to bring the matter into clear light, and 

 to throw with certainty blame of typhoid distribution upon a source which has for 

 some time been suspected, but not demonstrated. That the practice of fattening 



