2 52 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



efforts will be vigorously continued, with the expectation of rapid improve- 

 ment in existing conditions." 



In the report, which the Commissioner of Health submitted to your 

 superintendent these sentences occur: 



(Fol. 37.) " The studies can only be considered as preliminary and as 

 such, the department is not warranted in passing final judgment on the re- 

 sults for the purpose of administrative action." 



(Fol. 49.) " It must be evident then that an investigation full enough 

 to secure all of the necessary laboratory and engineering data to satisfac- 

 torily solve all of the questions upon which can be based proper and con- 

 istent official action relative to the oyster beds and tidal waters in the 

 vicinity of New York and Long Island is a task which it has been impossible 

 to complete in the limited time and with the limited force of laboratory and 

 engineering division assistants." 



The report of the Commissioner of Health, so far as he was able to go, 

 with the time and means at his command, was full, detailed and exhaustive. 

 Perhaps it might be thought, by one having no knowledge upon the subject, 

 that as the investigations had not been carried forward to completion or 

 far enough to warrant definite conclusions, the work expended was without 

 useful result. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the efforts 

 which had been made for years by the Shellfish Department for the purpose 

 of securing sanitary reforms and improved methods in oyster and clam 

 culture were emphasized and clinched when the inspectors from the Health 

 Department visited the various shellfish localities and were seen at their 

 work of investigation upon all of our bays, sounds and harbors. 



Men engaged in the business of planting, raising and marketing oysters 

 became intensely interested in securing for their crops the most cleanly 

 possible surroundings, forming their own associations to discuss and perfect 

 the best attainable methods, employing well-known bacteriologists to make 

 tests for them and to advise how conditions might be improved. They 

 have co-operated to the extent of their ability with the officials of this bureau 

 and with the Health Department inspectors by furnishing boats and men and 

 helping in every possible way. Following the question of the purification 

 of the surroundings of oyster beds, the matter of securing sanitary oyster 

 carriers was taken up, i. e., the securing of a proper package in which oysters 



