40 
OYSTERS AND DISEASE. 
What is really required is — 
1st. That some central, or local, Authority should inspect and license the oyster 
beds and layings, and that without such license, no oysters should be 
sold* ; and 
2nd. That all those who cultivate and those who sell oysters should exercise 
ordinary common sense, and elementary notions of decent cleanliness, in their 
responsible position as purveyors of an important and nutritious article of 
diet. 
Mr. C. E. Fryer, in the recently published 1 2th Annual Report of the Sea Fisheries 
Inspectors for England and Wales, discusses this question, and points out the difficulties 
in the way of preventing polluted oysters being shipped from unlicensed to licensed 
beds, and in regulating the importation of foreign oysters. However, as he himself states, 
these difficulties are not insurmountable. 
We quite agree with Mr. Fryer's further remark, that whatever precautions and 
regulations are adopted for preventing the distribution of contaminated shellfish, they 
ought to include measures for duly apportioning among the various parties concerned 
(such as those interested in the drains as well as those interested in the oysters) the 
responsibility for the contamination. 
* Since the above was written, an Oyster Bill has been laid before Parliament, which, although capable 
of improvement in some details, does much to meet the present difficulties. 
