Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-05-12


must look to local causes. This of
course is a matter OF great difficulty
In typhoid fever the period of incuba-
ton 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 iss
well established that the oyster may
be. and frequently is, the agent in.
transmitting this disease; that when
taken from polluted water 1t 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 its maximum.
To determine whether the oysters
which supply the New York market
are exposed to contamination an in
vestigation was undertaken by Walter
Bensel, NJ D., Assistant Sanitary Su-
perintendent of the Health Depart
ment. What has already been learned
is that many of the fattening and
bleaching beds are covered with sew
age-polluted water, and that to oys-
tiers 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. BeHsei
were 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
brackish waters in which the drink
ing" beds are established are heavily
polluted with sewage and filth and
is safe for food until steriTized by
cooking. This is as far as the investi-
CATION has gone Indeed, it need go
no further to show that the buyer OF
oysters for consumption raw should
draw the line at those which he can
not get with a responsible guarantee
that they are fresh from their natural
salt water beds.
The fattened and bleached oyster is
at best a CHASTITY parody of the nat
uraI oyster Brackish water is not
the oysters natural habitat, and in
such water it becomes sickIy and
loses the distinctive sea favor, which
is its principal attraction to one who
knows what good oysters are. It has
become a f1abby, fiavorless 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
intelligible to one who knows how the
trade is conducted, have aided in Gre
ating a demand for bleached oysters
and made the average consumer be-
lieve that they are much better than
the smaller and darker kinds which
rate below them in the scale OF value
The conclusions of DR.. Bensel, with
which all well-informed persons must
find themselves in agreement, are:
1. That the beds from which oysters
are taken for consumption in this city
often lie in grossly polluted waters.
2. That the process Of 'freshening,
"fattening," or drinking" often per-
formed as it is in small streams badly
contaminated with sewage, is a most
dangerous practice and should be dis
continued.
The investigation should be contin-
ued through the summer, and the
wholesale condemnation of polluted
oysters and clans is as much within
the powers and duties of the board of
health as the seizure and destructioD
of immature veal or spoiled fish