Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1904-05-12
OYSTERS AND TYPHOID.
Artificial Fattenine Results in Evil
Conditions.

During the first quarter of 1864
there were reported to the health de.
partment of New York 200 cases o,
typhoid fever occurring in the Dor
ough of Manhattan. Investigation as
careful as the circumstances permit
ted warrants the belief that II OF
these were contracted out of the city
and merely developed here. In 20
cases exposure to the disease was es-
tablished and in all probability they
may be claSsod as cases of secondary
infection. In tracing the origin of the
disease among the remaining 1855 we
must look to local causes. This of
course is a matter of great difficulty.
In typhoid fever the period of incuba.
tion is long enough to permit the pa
tient to forget where he was or what
he ate or drank at an uncertain date
from two to three weeks earlier. I'm
der these conditions the most profit
able effort is directed to discovering
what ingesteG material, whether food
or drink is liable to infection. 1t is
be, and frequently is, the agent in
transmitting this disease; that when
taken from polluted water it holds in.
lection with considerable tenacity,
and that in the presence of ice as
usually employed in cooling oysters
and clans for the table the malignant
energy of the bacillus typhosus seems
to be at it's maximum.
To determine whether the oysters
which supply the New York market
are exposed to contamination an in
veGtigation was undertaken by Walter
Bensel M. d., Assistant Sanitary Su-
perintendent of the Health Depart
ment. What has already been learned
is that many of the fattening
bleaching beds are covered with sew
aSe.polluted water, and that to oys-
ters from such beds a number OF
typhoid epidemics in this and other
countries have been traced unmistak-
ably In several cases the presence
of the bacillus coli communis in great
quantities in the waters of the creeks
and inlets used for bleaching beds
was discovered.
The Investigations of DR.. Bensel
We're conducted along the shores OF
Long island, and on the west side of
Staten island along the New Jersey
coast and up the Sound as far as
New Haven and its neighborhood.
Sanitary surveys were made and pho
tographs taken. the latter showing
that in a great many instances the
braciish waters in which the drink
ing" beds are established are heavily
that nothing which comes out of them
is safe for food until sterlized by
cooking. This is as far as the investi.
cation has gone Indeed, it need 20
no further to SHOW that the buyer Of
oysters for consumption raw should
draw the line at those which he can
not get with responsible guarantee
that they are fresh from their natural
salt water beds.
The fattened and bleached oyster is
at best CHASTITY parody Of the nat,
ural oyster Brackish water is not
the oysters natural habitat. and in
such water it becomes siclly and
loses the distinctive sea flavor, which
is its principal attraction to one who
knows what good oysters are It has
become a flabby. favorless mass of
pulpy insipidity, swollen and over
spread with the pallor OF its diseased
condition. No doubt the dealers. for
business reasons which are perfectly
ineligible to one who knows how the
trade Is conducted. have aided in Gre
ating a demand for bieached oysters
and made the average consumer be
lleve that they are much better than