SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 79 



quote here the following sentences from a letter recently 

 received from the Commissioner : — " For about ten years 

 the Cod work has been attended with marked success, 

 and in Massachusetts has resulted, not only in establish- 

 ing the in-shore Cod fishery on grounds long exhausted, 

 but, through favourable distribution of the fry, in extend- 

 ing the fishery to other waters not originally frequented 

 by the Cod." . . . "Some investigations made a few 

 years ago by the Commission indicated that the value of 

 the Cod now annually taken on new grounds is at least 

 several times greater than the entire yearly expenditures 

 of the Commission for fish-cultural work, and is increasing 

 each season." 



(2.) The investigation into the condition of Oysters from 

 various localities and under various circumstances, and 

 their relation to infective diseases in man, which I have 

 been carrying on during the last three years in conjunction 

 with Professor Boyce and Dr. Kohn is now concluded, 

 and our full memoir on the subject with illustrations of 

 the detailed evidence will soon be published. I have 

 therefore considered it right to lay before you in a special 

 section of this report the final conclusions at which we 

 have arrived on "The Oyster Question;" and I have 

 appended to it a reprint (from our paper at the Bristol 

 meeting of the British Association in September) of Dr. 

 Kohn's account of the presence of iron and copper in 

 certain Oysters. I think it is clear that what the public 

 wants at present is an assurance that the Oysters they 

 buy and eat come from grounds that are above suspicion. 

 There is a great opportunity for an independent autho- 

 rity — either " Health " or " Fisheries," " Central " or 

 " Local " — to take up the matter, and after due investi- 

 gation to license or certify certain grounds or certain 

 Oysters upon the lines I have indicated in the conclusions 

 on p. 134. W. A. Herdman. 



January, 1899. 



