CHAPTEE VIII 



BACTEEIA IN OTHEE FOODS 



1. Shell-fish : Oysters, Cockles, Clams, and their Relation to Disease ; Sjrmptoms of 

 Oyster-borne Disease ; Channels of Infection ; Preventive Methods — 2. Meat 

 Poisoning ; Tuberculous Meat — 3. Ice-cream and Ice — 4. Bacterial Infection 

 of Bread — 5. Miscellaneous Foods, Watercress, etc. 



In this chapter the occurrence and significance of bacteria in shell- 

 fish, meat, ice-cream, and bread will be considered. 



1. Shell-fish 



Shell-fish have recently claimed the attention of bacteriologists, 

 owing to the outbreak of typhoid and other epidemics apparently 

 traceable to oysters. 



Oysters. — It was not till 1880 (Cameron) that any substantial 

 evidence was forthcoming to establish the view, which had previously 

 been promulgated (by Pasquier in 1816), that oysters and other 

 shell-fish might convey the infection of typhoid fever. In 1893 

 oysters came under the suspicion of Sir Eichard Thorne Thorne 

 as concerned in the diffusion of scattered cases of cholera in Eng- 

 land, and he reported on the risks of consuming shell-fish culti- 

 vated at sewage outfalls.* In the spring of 1894 Dr Newsholme 

 reported to the Corporation of Brighton the particulars of a number 

 of cases of typhoid fever which were apparently attributable to the 

 consumption of oysters obtained from layings grossly contaminated 

 by sewage. At the end of the same year an outbreak of typhoid 

 fever occurred at the Wesleyan University, in the State of Con- 

 necticut, U.S.A., and an investigation was made by Professor H. 



* " On Cholera in England in 1893," Local Qovernment Board Report, 1894. 



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