Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-02-27
THE DEADLY OYSTER! OR
IS He DEADLY AT ALL?

Washington. D, c., Feb. 26.-To eat
or not to eat-oysters? That is the
question now agitating the public mind
but which will shortly be solved by the
department of agriculture. Frightened
in abstemiousness so far as oysters
are concerned by recent declarations
of DR.. Harvey w. Wiley, the oyster
eating public, or a portion of it, at
least, will welcome the result of an
by the bureau of chemistry, the pure
food conservator of the government.
This will be the first pure food pro-
nouncement of Dr. Carl A. Alsberg,
new chief of the chemistry bureau anil
successor of DR.. Wiley.
Prof Earle B. Phelps, noted scien-
fist of Boston, and one of the faculty
of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech.
nology, takes sharp issue with DR..
Wiley for needlessly killing the most
zestful pleasure of American epicures
and upsetting the minds of the general
public, with his off-hand statement
that more than Is per cent of the oy-
sters offered in the eastern markets
are not fit to eat and are dangerous
to health. Dr. Phelps criticises DR..
Wiley for wantonly disturbing the
general peace of mind of the people.
DR.. Wiley recently announced that
all oysters of New York bay Nara
gansett bay, Chesapeake bay, Potomac
river, the waters near Norfolk, the
mouth of the James river, the mouths
of the Connecticut and Merrimac riy-
ers and other industrial streams, and
the continental border of Lond Island
sound, are open to suspicion, and
should not be eaten raw. In other
words he condemns off-hand more than
rs per cent of the oysters of the cas-
tern market.
Prof. Phelps disputes the basis for
this opinion and asks for evidence. He
then examines the evidence himself
and declares that the great bodies o.
water in which 95 per cent of the oy.
sters now on the market are grown,
are free from dangerous contamina-
ton and a similar proportion of the
oysters of the eastern market may be
safely eaten raw.
With a great conflict of expert opin-
ion following declarations both off
cial and otherwise, the public is quer-
rulous. Oyster eaters have come to
the point where they either abandon
oysters or eat oysters and abandon
hope"
To set at rest the public mind, DR..
Alsberg and his scientific ASSISTANTS
are making detailed and careful exam
nation of the whole question. In line
with DR.. Alsberg's policy, when this,
his first declaration on a big pure fool
subject is made, full consideration will
be given to every factor of safety and
non safety of eating the bivalve. Oy-
sters will be considered with respect
to their past life and local surround
ings Immediately before being brought
to market. This means that if oysters
from particular section or series of
beds are bad, they will be so branded,
but the stigma will be lifted from the
rest of the oyster family with an
equally open declaration that oysters
brought from other sections are pure,
wholesome and nutritious, if such ia
the case.
"The oyster is a nutritious, whole.
some and economical food, or it is {,
positive menace to the health of the
community, according to the particu,
lar side of the question which one
happens to read" says DR. Phelps in
Science Conspectus, the official scieu-
tific publication of the Massachusetts,
Institute of Technology. "In the daily
press. in the leading magazines and
before meetings of learned Societies,
the oyster question is being discussed
with an enthusiasm that is not always