ox THE LIFE CONDITIONS OF THE OYSTER. 559 



Life Conditions of the Oi/der : Normal and Ahnovinal. — Third and 

 Final Beport of the Committee, consisting of Professor W. A. 

 Herdman {Chairman), Professor R. Boyce {Secretary), Mr. G. C. 

 Bourne, Dr. C. A, Kohn, and Professor C. S. Sherrington, 

 aiJpoinied to Report on the EliiGidation of the Life Conditions of the 

 Oyster under Normal and Abnormal Environment, including the 

 Effect of Sewage Matters and Pathogenic Organisms. {Brawn up 

 by Professor Herdman, Professor Boyce, and Dr. Kohn.) 



The Committee are bringing their investigations to an end for the present, 

 and they now state in this final report a series of the conclusions at 

 which they have arrived. The details of the evidence upon which these 

 conclusions are based will appear in a fully illustrated memoir by Pro- 

 fessor Boyce and Professor Herdman, which is nearly ready for publica- 

 tion. A good deal of that evidence has, hoAvever, been outlined in our 

 former reports (at Ipswich, Liverpool, and Toronto), and need not be now 

 z-epeated. 



Since last year's report, howeA'er, we have gone further into the ques- 

 tion of the amount of copper and iron present in different parts of various 

 kinds of oysters, with results which sustain the conclusions we had 

 already arrived at. 



We have also gone more minutely into the question of typhoid-like 

 organisms, their occurrence in shellfish, and the differentiation of these 

 from the U. coli communis on the one hand, and from the true B. typhosus 

 on the othei", with the following results : — 



Bacteriology of Shellfish. 



In one of our previous reports (B.A., Liverpool, 1896) we drew 

 attention to the comparatively frequent occurrence of a group of organisms 

 giving the reactions of the Bacillus coli, and also of a motile bacillus, which, 

 owing to the fact that it did not behave like the Colon bacillus in all its 

 reactions— i.e., formation of indol and gas bubbles, approached somewhat 

 the B. typhosus type. Shortly after the publication of that paper. Dr. 

 Klein drew attention, in the very comprehensive Local Government 

 Board Report, upon ' Oyster Culture in Relation to Disease,' to the fre- 

 quency of the presence of the Colon bacillus in oysters, and in one instance 

 to the presence of a bacillus, which, after most careful investigation, could 

 not be distinguished from the bacillus of Eberth. Since that date we 

 have continued our investigations upon the bacteria present in oysters, 

 and have further extended them to other shellfish. We have examined, 

 during the last year, 19 batches of oysters, 17 batches of mussels, 

 18 batches of cockles, 5 batches of periwinkles, and 1 batch of whelks ; 

 tliese were obtained from shops in various parts of Liverpool. 



Metliods. — The methods employed were similar to those detailed in our 

 report previously referred to, except that we availed ourselves of the 

 serum reaction ; and we desire to express our thanks to Dr. Christophers, 

 who especially undertook the investigation of the serum reaction in con- 

 nection with all the ' coli ' and typhoid- like organisms which were isolated 

 in the laboratory. 



