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44
the home of the child, it would, in our opinion, be best to
leave the parent free to accept or reject the offer.
Dr. Collins and Mr. Picton also make a lengthy statement of
their grounds of dissent from the Report.
OYSTER CULTURE IN RELATION TO DISEASE.
A interesting report on the above subject was published the latter
part of the year in a Supplement to the Report of the Medical Officer to
the Local Government Board for the year 1894-95.
Several doctors in England and America had reported cases of
typhoid fever which appeared to be due to the consumption of oysters ;
and also Dr. Thorne, in his report on " Cholera in England in 1893,"
showed that the distribution of certain shell-fish from Cleethorpes
and Grimsby had been concerned in the diffusion of scattered cases of
cholera over a somewhat wide area in England.
These reports, receiving much prominence in the press, had a
serious effect upon the oyster industry, and led to the above inquiry.
Dr. Bulstrode investigated the conditions under which oysters and
certain other edible molluscs are cultivated and stored along the Coast
of England and Wales; and Dr. Klein conducted the Bacteriologcal researches.
The Supplement also contains a copy of the Report by Professor
Conn, on an outbreak of typhoid fever at Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Connecticut, and extracts from the proceedings of the Acadcmy
of Medicinc of Paris on the spread of the disease through the agency of
oysters.
Dr. Thorne reports that in many places the oyster "layings" are
exposed to the risk of sewage pollution, especially at Southend
Cleethorpes, and the Medina River in the Isle of Wight; Penryn
River, Cornwall; Brightlingsea, Essex; and Southwick, near
Shoreham.
And what is still more important in many localities the means of
storage (whether in beds, ponds, pits or otherwise) immediately antecedent
to the distribution of oysters for human consumption, come under
distinct condemnation, particularly at Southend ; Wivenhoe; Grimsby