The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-08
DANGER IN OYSTERS.
Men Who Eat the Bivalves Subject to
Insanity.

Oyster eaters, beware! According to
an exhaustive Investigation made at
ment by Prof Anton Siegafritz of Cor
litz, those addicted to the inordinate
use of the succulent bivalve are sub
ject to violent fits of insanity. This SCI
entific expert declares that many cases
or suicide can be traced to the habit OF
eating oysters. He holds oysters re-
sponsible for violent fits of temper and
habitual bad language in those to
whom they form a staple food, and
cites the current dictum as to the uses
OF a fish diet, which became a reiter-
ated vexation to its reputed author dur
ing his lifetime. The professor in his
report submitted to the German ma
tional bureau of public economics.
writes in part as follows:
Louis AgaSsiz, an American of Ger
man descent, first promulgated the facx
that fish diet contributed more phos~
phorus to the system than any other
and hence was to be recommended to
brain workers, who consume their phos.
phorus more rapidly than any othes
classes. A larger proportion of phos-
phoruS is eliminated by the system
from oysters than from any other in
habitants of the sea- But l have dis
covered that indulgence in oysters is by
no means safe. Their least injurious
effect is on brain workers who, by rea-
son of their greater combustion of
phosphorus, seem capable of assimi-
lating many oysters without evil con3e-
quences.
But in the case of all those who do
more bodily than mental labor, and in
proportion as their physical exceeds the
mental exercise, l have observed dis
tinct and positive tendency in the oys-
ter, when eaten, to produce emotional
insanity, or, at least. a transitcry, I'M
heralded species of frenzy.
while investigating the cultivation
of the oyster and its effects in the phys
ical and mental system in all parts of the
world it was among the fishermen of
Ostend that l first suspected a peculiar
action of the cerebellum might be in
duced by the Incorporate use of this
article of diet. 1t occurred to me that
fishwives, the world over, especially
those who eat many oysters. have a
peculiar Feasibility of temper, a strange
disposition to quarrel. and a singular
readiness and fiuency in the use of foul
language. But to be just to the fish
mongers it is not they alone who bristle
with abuse and bad temper. L have no.
ticed it among all sorts of outdoor
workers who eat oysters. The phos-
phorus, perhaps needed by brain work.
ers and extracted from the bivalves, in
the case of toilers who live by the ex-
ercise of their Drawn and muscles, seems
to set their brains on fire 1 have seen
stokers. coal beavers and stevedores in
England, after eating a dozen or two
of oysters, suddenly transformed from
men into wild beasts. 1 have seen
peaceful Normandy peasants. after but
a score of oysters, shake off their ma
tive lethargy and become Infatuated
ruff1ans.
The American oyster, not having
been trained by centuries of civilization,
like the European variety, is still more
violent in it's effect In New York pur-
suing my studies upon the wharves and
markets, 1 had frequent occasions to
note that violent accession of frenzy
followed large consumption of the BIZ
valves The increasing frequency of
suicides in the United States is an es-
tablished fact. During my Investigations
there 1 was able to trace the act of felo
de Sc, in many instances, to emotional
insanity induced by excessive oyster
eating. / have given much thought and
research to this subject, and l am
strongly disposed to Attribute the great
excess of madness which prevailed in
the first centuries of the Roman empire,
and manifested itself in the widest sx-
travagances of luxury and the elevation
of suicide to a heroic act, to the great
passion for oysters which then seized
upon that people.
while in Philadelphia I was fur
nished with theory by famous medi-
cal professor to the effect that the abb
solutely fresh oyster was not injurious.
But he also admitted that those usually
on the market are not direct from the
sea. He pointed out that the oyster IS
a gross feeder, OmnivorOus and voracl-
Gus. Deprived of water, it begins to
assimilate air But this induces new
activity in the phosphorus it secreteS. A
process of slow combustion begins in it.
and this increases with each day the
oyster is kept 1t is to this condition
of phosphorus, combusted in the stale
oyster, that the origin of emotional in
sanity. which so often follows its con-
sumption, is probably due."-New York
Tribune.
When the Prince Imperial Died.