37° 



NA TURE 



[February 19, 190^ 



cent. But, as may be seen in the table, a piece from 

 another stock gave a different amount of leakage. The 

 same holds good for platinum, one specimen tried being 

 twice as active as another. It was found that ignition 

 did not affect the radio-activity of a given specimen of 

 platinum. . 



In order to compare the activity of the substances 

 mentioned above with that of uranium, a small crystal 

 of uranium nitrate, measuring 12x4 mm., was 

 1 'minted to the inside of one of the cylinders ; the rate 

 o'l li ak due to it was found to be thirteen times that 

 due to the most active cylinder of platinum. The area of 

 the uranium was onty 1 /240th part that of the platinum, 

 so that its activity for an equal area would be no less 

 than 3000 times greater. It is possible that the radio- 

 activity of ordinary materials may be due to traces of 

 the more active substances. This would explain the 

 varying activities of different samples of the same metal. 

 Only an infinitesimal proportion of radium would be 

 required. Radium is 100,000 times more- active than 

 uranium, and uranium 3000 times more active than the 

 most active common material that I have experimented 

 with. So that one part of radium in three hundred 

 million would suffice to account for the observed effects. 



R. J. Strutt. 



OYSTERS AND TYPHOID FEVER. 



THE recent outbreaks of typhoid fever at Winchester 

 *■ and at Southampton have again directed public 

 attention to the risk of typhoid infection due to the 

 laying down of edible forms of shell-fish in sewage- 

 polluted waters. 



So long ago as 1895, in a report made by Dr. 

 Bulstrode to the Local Government Board, it was pointed 

 out that few of the oyster layings, fattening beds or 

 storage ponds round the English and Welsh coasts 

 could be regarded as free from possible sewage contam- 

 ination. In consequence of this report, the Local 

 Government Board in 1899 introduced a Bill providing 

 that the various county and borough councils should 

 ascertain from time to time the sanitary conditions of the 

 oyster layings and empowering these bodies to take action 

 if sewage pollution were proved. This Bill, which dealt 

 only with oysters, after having been read a second time, 

 was withdrawn. Apparently nothing has since been 

 done, matters have been allowed to drift, and in conse- 

 quence several outbreaks of disease have occurred, with 

 loss of valuable lives, and an important industry . is 

 threatened with temporary ruin. 



In I90i,the medical officer of health for Westminster 

 reported on certain cases of typhoid fever seemingly due 

 to contaminated cockles, from some of which a bacillus, 

 having all the characters of the typhoid bacillus, was 

 isolated at the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine. 



Dr. Nash, the medical officer of health for Southend- 

 on-Sea, reported upon the incidence of typhoid fever in 

 that borough during 1901, and found that in no less than 

 twenty-one out of thirty-seven cases of the disease there 

 was a history of the eating of shellfish (generally oysters 

 and cockles) within a month of the onset of the disease, 

 i.e. within the incubation period. From a report by Dr. 

 Allan, medical officer of health for the City of West- 

 minster, mussels also seem to be implicated. 



Attacks of illness, attributable to the eating of shell- 

 fish, in the Borough of Wandsworth and the City of 

 Westminster having been brought to the notice of the 

 Corporation of the City of London, the last-named body 

 has taken action. The responsibility of (he City Cor- 

 poration in this matter is great, for not only are the 

 majority of the cockles and many of the oysters impli- 

 cated exposed for sale in the City, but the former shell- 

 fish is mostly obtained and relaid within the City's 

 NO. I/38, VOL. 67] 



jurisdiction. The City Corporation has therefore caused 

 a number of samples to be bacterioscopically examined 

 by Dr. Klein, and his reports show that a larger or 

 smaller proportion of the samples examined from every 

 district shows evidence of sewage contamination, and 

 from certain cockles the typhoid bacillus has actually 

 been isolated. 



The question then arose as to dealing with an 

 obviously infected and dangerous source of food supply. 

 Under the Public Health (London) Act 1891, it is pos- 

 sible to obtain a justice's order to destroy such un- 

 wholesome food, but the necessary examination to 

 establish the fact involves a lapse of several days, and 

 before the results of such examination could be known, 

 the whole quantity of the sample implicated would have 

 been consumed. In the circumstances, the facts 

 were reported to the Worshipful Company of Fish- 

 mongers, which has extensive powers over the fishing 

 industry throughout the country, and the Company's 

 inspectors are now engaged in a survey of the various 

 sites of the shell-fish fisheries and are taking steps to 

 stop the sale of contaminated molluscs. 



It might have been thought that sea-water would be 

 prejudicial to the typhoid bacillus, but such does not 

 appear to be the case. The experiments of Dr. Klein 

 and of Prof. Boyce have shown that although the 

 organism does not multiply, it retains its vitality in sea- 

 water for at least three or four weeks. In the infected 

 oyster it lives for two to three weeks or more, and even 

 when washed in pure running sea-water, the infective 

 properties may be retained for several days. 



As regards cockles, these are " cooked " before con- 

 sumption, and thorough cooking would be fatal to the 

 typhoid bacillus. But it seems that the "cooking" of 

 cockles is a very perfunctory process, and consists in 

 simply plunging nets filled with the molluscs into boiling 

 water, so that many might (and obviously do) escape the 

 full action of the heat ; actual boiling renders them 

 tough and uneatable. 



Legislative enactments and periodical inspections are 

 obviously necessary to protect the public from the risk 

 of infection from sewage contaminated shell-fish, and 

 should be welcomed by the merchants and their 

 employes whose livelihood depends upon this important 

 industry. So far back as 1S94, the value of the oysters 

 alone landed by English dredgers in that year amounted 

 to 84,271/. R. T. Hewlett. 



MR. MARCONI AND THE POST OFFICE. 



•THE fact that the message from the King to Presi- 

 -1 dent Roosevelt, in reply to the latter's wireless 

 telegram of greeting, had to be sent to America by 

 cable occasioned at the time much comment and corre- 

 spondence in the daily papers on the attitude of the 

 Post Office towards Mr. Marconi ; the subject cropped 

 up again last week on the return of Mr. Marconi to 

 this country after his successful expedition to America. 

 There is some little difficulty in ascertaining the real 

 state of the case, as two or three different explanations 

 have been put forward in the papers, but the truth of 

 the matter seems to be precisely what we stated in our 

 notes columns four weeks ago. In an interview with 

 a representative of the Daily Express, Mr. Marconi 

 made the following statements : — 



" We asked the Post Office authorities whether they 

 would allow us to connect our station at Poldhu by wire 

 with Mullion — at our own expense, mind you — but they re- 

 fused absolutely and entirely." 



" The message (that from the King) was not received at 

 our offices until after Mullion Post Office had closed for 

 the night, and one cannot very well keep a King's message 



