THE DISTRIBUTION OF SEWAGE IN THE WATERS OF NARRA- 
GANSETT BAY, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CON- 
TAMINATION OF THE OYSTER BEDS,? 
By Cates ALLEN FULLER, 
Assistant in Wisconsin State Hygienic Laboratory. 
INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON ‘* OYSTER INFECTION.” 
More than twenty years ago attention was called to the fact that 
oysters and other shellfish which are eaten raw might be the cause of 
some of the outbreaks of typhoid fever and cholera which have 
occurred from time to time in certain coast towns of England and 
Ireland. Among the first to support this view strongly was Sir 
Charies Cameron. After examining some oyster beds on the northern 
shore of Dublin Bay, he suggested that ‘‘oysters taken from this 
source were quite as likely to be a source of typhoid infection as milk 
or water.” He found these oyster beds in a most unhealthy condition. 
The oysters were sick and died in large numbers every year. Inves- 
tigation of the beds showed them to be ‘‘literally bathed in sewage,” 
and the oysters were found to contain sewage matters within the shells. 
In 1880 he read before the British Medical Association a paper entitled 
‘*Oysters and typhoid,” in which he called attention to the fact that 
contaminated oysters might be the cause of these outbreaks of typhoid 
fever and cholera in the coast towns of England and Ireland. 
No special interest was manifested in this statement until, in 
1893, Doctor Thorne-Thorne, in his report to the local government 
board for that year, gave it as his opinion that certain sporadic cases 
of cholera which had occurred at various inland places in England 
in that year were due to oysters and other shellfish from sewage- 
contaminated water at Grimsby, where there had been a small outbreak 
of the disease. Following out Doctor Thorne-Thorne’s suggestion, 
the Government commenced an exhaustive series of investigations, the 
results of which have appeared in the annual reports of the local 
government board. This work was carried out under the direction of 
Doctors Bulstrode and Klein. 
@Thesis submitted to the faculty of Brown University for the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy. 
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