The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-09-23
A DISPLAY OF IGNORANCE.

The rronia CihsfH. weekly newspaper
published at Irvington, Va, rises on its hind
legs In indignation because scientists OF the
national government have condemned as unfit
for food oysters taken from the Potomac river
between Blackstone Island and Washington
owing to the polluted condition of the river
due to sewage from Washington and Alexan-
dria and proceeds to vent the Walls of its
wrath upon the newspapers which have dane
their manifest duty toward safeguarding the
yublic health by giving publicity TO the con-
domination report Exclaims the Citizen;
WHY newspapers Of washington
and Raltiroora--wiu exploit the nane and
harmful reports of scientists that Potomac
oy sters are had is beyond comprehension TO
These same papers profess to be mediums
for the public good. yet to advertise pinhead
officials seekfyg notoriety to gain higher jobs
or t. hold TO- ones they have, these papers
sre helrinr starye thousa nds Of citizens in the
oyster regions, The Potomac oyster is clean
and clear, and has been proven so by many
+ studied esa limitations. Further there is not
single of typhoid that could be honestly
trareahle direct Ia the eating of oysters Surely
IL is time the great papers stopped playing
INTO the hands of the meat trust and two-by-
/ four docors.
/ The editor OF the Citizen is not only dis
playing his ignorance. but doing his readers
and the community of which his paper is cir
culated grave injustice in attempting to dis.
credit facts that have been established by thu
14ediea profession for ages. Enlightened phy~
sicans have long pointed out the danger tom
typhoid germs that Turk in the luscious
4htvafve.'h Nesting in the mud and rock. he
feeds and thrives upon sewage and there are
lprobably few more prolific sources of in:ec-
ton The editor OF the Citizen ought to know,
II he doesn't that Washington has suffered
from more than epidemic of typhoid fever
directly traceable to the polluted waters OF Ike
| Potomac and scientists assert, that there ia
more danger from infection. if such thing be
possible, through eating the oyster inhabting
polluted waters than in quenching ones thirst
from the same stream, for the reason that the
Ioysters absorbing the settled, germ infected
4, mud presents them, to speak in concea-
trated form.
! A great many advanced physicians. Who
have made careful study of the germ theory
and the sources of infection, have advanced
the proposition that those who indulge ;hc-
appetites for oysters until after a killing
frost has fallen are running grea- RISK OF
infection, and these firmly of the opinion
that the present regulations governing the
season should be amended that :he biYaiVes
Il Guild not reach the market uuti. uc 'sber 1st
or until after the first frost and there has
been serious talk of promoting this reform
in several of the oyster producing States, Az
tempting as he is to the palate of the
|epcurean. the oyster is proven menace TO
health and the ''pinhead officials are only
doing their sworn duty to society in their con
iGeTnfation proceedings IF they lid lass they
" oud deserve to be drummel out OF cfh"e.
II is The Virgiaan that is "two-6y-forr,"