86 TBANSACTIONS LIVEKPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



acute poisoning follow almost immediately after eating 

 shellfish, usually mussels, that we suppose to be clue to 

 the toxic effect of an organic poison or ptomaine called 

 mytilotoxine developed in the liver of the shellfish as the 

 result of an unhealthy life and probably caused by microbes. 

 The two causes are distinct, and their effects upon man 

 are very different, but both are due in the long run to 

 contamination of the water, and so to want of care in 

 choosing suitable localities for our shellfish beds. 



So it comes to this, if we can have our mussel beds and 

 oyster farms and "layings" inspected by competent 

 authorities, and certified by the Board of Trade or some 

 sanitary authority as being in a healthy condition, we 

 could eat our oysters with an easy mind, which would 

 be an undoubted advantage both to consumers and " the 

 trade." The only objections, I take it, that can be urged 

 against such a plan of inspection are — First, What are we 

 to do with foreign oysters — Dutch, French, or American? 

 Some or all of them may be good, but we cannot ensure 

 that they are reared in thoroughly sanitary conditions. 

 In the second place, pure sea- water, free from any chance 

 of sewage contamination, can no longer be found close to 

 any of our large coast towns, and yet localities in our 

 estuaries and in the immediate neighbourhood of large 

 centres of population are, from obvious reasons, the most 

 convenient places for fattening and storing oysters. 



It is probable, then, that we must be satisfied with a 

 compromise. "We must be content with something less 

 than absolute perfection. After all, we do not want — 

 even if we could get it — an aseptic oyster. The rest of 

 our food — our milk, our bread and cheese, our ham sand- 

 wiches, and so on — are teeming with germs, most of them 

 harmless so far as we know, but some of them may be 

 just as bad as any that can be in shellfish. If we were 



