Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-22
The Most
Remark
able
Scientific
Scientific Detective Fea
Ever Accomplished wi
the United States Cow
eminent in the Role
of Sherlock Holmes
By RENE BACHE

ID remarkable piece of scientific detective work
me United States Government has framed up
at last crcumstantial indictment of the oyster
DIS ypnold fever carrier and has definitely traced the
yphod infection back each step from the sick bed
Tue oyster bed. And, indeed, even back to the par
ucuIar sewer pollution which caused the infection,
mere nave been printed from time to time general
1acts regarding the infection of oysters with disease
germs from sewage, but there has before been
case IN which the whole process start to finish
oeen ueilnltely and positively unrolled before the
eyes of the investigators
me big case" which has resulted in the typhoid
oyster being definitely identified began at banquet
neld at Goshen, the County seat of Orange County
New York. on October 5, 1911 There were 55 persons
present and of these exactly 100 became i'll within
re" hours or days-seventeen of them with typhoid
eVe and e1ghtythree with intestinal diseases
OF the typhoid patients, several died The intestinal
disorders exhibited in the majority symptoms not I'M
IKE mild typhoid, the course of the disease running
from four to six weeks.
This epidemic coming soon after a nupbor of sim
ar outbreaks following banques about New York was
called to the attention of the Government authorities
these authorities have been working on the matter
ever since-siftng the evidence and collecting facts
1t was necessary first of all to find out with GER
alnty what it that made all these people i'll Every
possible source of infection, including milk and water
was considered. The menu of the banquet was ana,
lyzed and copies of it to all the surviving
guests with the request that they mark the things
they had eaten.
First Proof Against the Oysters
The replies showed that all but two of those
Ill mad eaten raw oysters. The oyster was the
constant factor in the outbreak Further investigation
of other foodstufs consumed relieved them of
If practically all of those taken ill had eaten raw
oysters, and if the other things that they had
were pure manfesty the oysters cause of the
illness. But, how to prove it?
They were supplied, it finally learned by local
retail merchant of Goshen who may be called Dealer
{. He had bought them from Dealer g. wholesaler
in New York City; and the books of Dealer B showed
that they "Rockaways," originally derived from
person who may be designated Dealer A. at Indian
Creek, near Canarsie, Long Island.
To make perfectly that there was no mistake
about this the shells OF the oysters the Goshen
banquet obtained. This not easy. They had
been buried to get rid of them, telephone pole
close Soy the music hall, but finally the detectives To-
Gated them and dug them up Some of them were
taken washed and matched" with oysters freshly Sc.
cured from the floating bins" of the same Dealer A.
at Canarsie.
Now it is not generally known, but oysters grown
in any given locality, should understand have a
recognizable shape and certain shell characteristics
of their own; that is to say they have certain fixed
differences that identify them from oysters from
other place. Jamaica Bay oysters, being supplied with
plenty of food from and other develop
very rapidly, and result their shells very long
with thin and brittle tips 1t easy matter, by
comparing the shells from Goshen with those at Indian
Creek, make that the former had actually
from Jamaica Bay.