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10
was largely contaminated by sewage, and indeed constituted
the sewage outlet of a large provincial town, which at
the time of investigation was the scene of an extensive
outbreak of Typhoid fever.
No law at present exists on the statute book which can be
made operative to limit or prevent the sale of these sewagebearing
articles. No consumer has any assurance that the
oyster he buys has not been fattened in sewage water, or
the watercress he sees on his breakfast table has not been
gathered from a stream no less filthy than an open drain.
So long as these sewage-bearing articles are allowed to
enter our markets unchallenged, so long will Typhoid and
other diseases of a filth origin be prevalent among us
and the efforts of the Sanitarian will be, in a corresponding
measure ineffective. While sewage-fed oysters and sewagegrown
watercress only constitute a very limited section of
the supply, the public is not possessed of that power of
discrimination that can determine which is pure and which
is impure, and consequently both these articles remain
under suspicion, their sale falls off, the grower complains
of dwindling returns and the public is deprived of the
enjoyment of articles of dietary which, when produced
under favourable conditions, are exceedingly wholesome.
On the other hand, persons who are foolhardy enough to
partake of either of these articles without having the means
at command of ascertaining definitely the place of their
production run no small risk of swallowing infective particles
and contracting some dangerous complaint.
It is paradoxical that, while the local authorities are
straining every nerve to efficiently drain the districts under
their control, and remove sewage and organic refuse from
the precincts of populated areas, at the same time the
central authority, under the designation of a Local