FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 285 



carriers or shipping packages have been invented. The object has been to 

 keep the oysters from coming into contact with the ice in transit. Some 

 planters and dealers are experimenting with a number of different inventions 

 in the endeavor to find the one best adapted to their purposes. 



No standard has yet been adopted in accordance with which it may be 

 said that the waters in any given locality are safe or unsafe for the cultiva- 

 tion of shellfish, but intelligent efforts are being made, as before intimated, 

 by the United States and State governments and by the planters themselves, 

 to secure a wholesome product from clean sources. The extent to which 

 New York bay is notoriously polluted, in consequence of the continual 

 discharge into its waters of the effluent from hundreds of sewers, mark it as 

 a peculiarly unfit place for shellfish cultivation, and throughout the history 

 of this Department no lands under those waters have been granted for the 

 purpose of raising oysters for food or market purposes. 



Taking into consideration the fact that the oyster does not contract 

 typhoid fever; that on the contrary it expels within a few days any germs 

 of bacilli which may have entered its shell ; that the danger of pollution in 

 the oyster is measured by the amount of pollution in the water surrounding 

 it ; that in all the tests made no bacilli typhosus have been found in oysters 

 unless first placed there for experiment or unless for experiment the oysters 

 had been purposely immersed in a polluted medium ; that it may be said that 

 in practically every case of typhoid the bacillus has been carried by drinking 

 water, milk or other ordinary foods, while all of the outbreaks of typhoid 

 in this country which may reasonably be attributed to the consumption of 

 oysters may be counted upon the fingers of one hand. It will be appre- 

 ciated that the oyster has always been a relatively safe article of human 

 food. Now when, in addition to the natural safeguards, State commissions, 

 the national authorities, shellfish associations and individual planters and 

 dealers are actively interested in securing proper sanitary surroundings 

 and pure environment for oyster beds and have taken pains to provide 

 sterilized and otherwise sanitary packages in which the mollusk may be 

 shipped to localities remote from the coast, without coming in contact 

 with any questionable substance or surface, not even touching the ice with 

 which the package is cooled, there can be no doubt of the good and whole- 

 some character of this appetizing article of food. 



