76 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [May 



siderable quantity of pork without delaying their busi- 

 ness and damaging the meat. These fears proved to be 

 groundless. The work of the abattoirs has neither been 

 obstructed nor the meat injured. On the contrary, there 

 are now from all points the most urgent appeals for 

 more microscopical inspection. 



Cholera, Typhoid and Other Bacterial Diseases Trans- 

 mitted Through Oysters. 



There is no longer doubt that oysters may take 

 up from polluted water various disease germs and 

 that the bacilli will thrive and produce disease in 

 whoever eats these oysters unless the individual 

 eating them is robust enough to resist the multiplication 

 of the bacilli. It is possible for the human organism to 

 be put in such condition that disease will not result even if 

 its seeds are introduced therein, but extremely few are so 

 conditioned; all others should avoid eating oysters unless 

 they know that the the oyster beds have not been subject 

 to contamination. This caution applies not only to raw 

 oysters but in a less degree to stews, since the tempera- 

 ture of the latter is not sufficient to entirely destroy 

 typhoid bacilli. Numerous cases of injury from polluted 

 oysters have now been scientifically investigated. 



In 1880, certain people in Scotland suffered from 

 cholera after eating oysters that grew on the copper 

 sheathing of a sunken ship. In this case copper poison- 

 ing was transmitted to the consumers by the oysters. 



In 1893, cholera attacked two hundred and eighty- 

 seven persons in England, of whom one hundred and 

 thirty-five died. Forty per cent are known to have 

 eaten shell-fish, mostly from the Grrimsby and Cleethorpes 

 beds. Cholera had been brought to G-rimsby from 

 abroad and the molluska were so located that they might 



