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Professor Cohn, in conclusion, says :—" The question arose at
once whether the typhoid germs would live under the conditions
presented in these oysters or be killed by the salt
water or the oyster juices. That the germ is not killed by salt
water has been shown by both Freytag and Foster, both of
whom have found that the typhoid organism will live for
weeks in a concentrated salt solution. Specimens of the
oysters were, however, submitted to Dr. Chas. J. Foote, of the
Yale Medical School, for testing the question directly. The
general result was to show that the typhoid organism will live
in the oysters long enough to have the oysters taken to
Middletown and be eaten. In these experiments the bacilli
typhi abdominali were forced in between the shells of the
oysters from the creek and were found alive and capable of
growth at the end of 48 hours. This is all that is required to
account for the outbreak at Middletown."
Dr. Thorne mentions as special dangerous layings the
following places:—
1. Southend
2. Cleethorpes
3. Medina Eiver (Isle of Wight)
4. Penryn Eiver, Cornwall
5. Brightlingsea Creek, Essex
6. Off Southwick, near Shoreham
7. In the Menai Straits
He states that the instances of Southend, Cleethorpes and
Medina are the worst, but he is able to speak well of the
Whitstable oyster fisheries and the fisheries generally on the
Kent and Essex Coasts.
With regard to Dr. Klein's bacteriological investigations
Dr. Thorne states, after quoting a number of experiments
performed by the former gentleman:—That "it follows, therefore,
from these experiments that oysters, from various
localities and of diverse origin, which are kept for a while in
sea-water previously infected with culture of the typhoid
bacillus, and which remain living and fresh, may and do
harbour in their interior the living typhoid bacillus at intervals
of 4, 9, 16, and even 18 days from commencement of experiment
; and that these oysters on being opened show no
abnormal condition, but appear fresh and quite unaltered.
Further, it appears that the typhoid bacillus which was recovered
from these oysters, as also from the tank water, retains unimpaired
all the characters of the typical typhoid bacillus that was used for
the experiment."
With regard to "experiments made with Oysters kept in
Cholera-infected Sea-water," it was shown that the Cholera
vibrio may exist in sea-water tanks for two or more weeks, but