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contracted out of London during the summer holidays, mostly during
visits to places on the coast. During 1896 no less than eight such
cases were brought to light. While such is possible, Hackney will
have its autumnal crop of enteric fever cases. During the year,
interest has been revived in the possible spread of this disease by
means of oysters and other edible shell-fish, and a very important
report on this subject has been issued by the Medical Officer of the
Local Government Board. This report, which is the result of an
enquiry as to the conditions under which oysters and other molluscs
are cultivated on the coasts, and their temporary storage in pits and
ponds and other places prior to their dispatch to market, shows that
in many places the oysters, and storage pits have been placed
in such close proximity to sewer outfalls, that their pollution with
excrementatious matter is almost certain; but other beds and pits
were found to be quite free from danger of pollution, and many
others in positions where the degree of danger of pollution from
sewage varied considerably between the above extremes. Places
mentioned in the report where layings of oysters were exposed to
the risk of pollution are—Southend; Cleethorpes, at the mouth of
the Humber; bed situated in the Medina, in the Isle of Wight;
layings in the Penryn River, Cornwall, and those in Brightlingsea
Creek, in Essex; layings off Southwick, near Shoreham. Beds in
the Menai Straits come also under suspicion. The storage places
mentioned in the report as being exposed to pollution by sewage
were found at Southend; at the mouth of the Blackwater; at
Wivenhoe; the fish dock at Grimsby; storage pits at Poole; Warsash,
near Southampton; Emsworth, near Havant; also at Bosham and
Southwick. Dr. Bulstrode, in the appendix to the report, states:—
"At certain places along our coasts no care whatever has been
exercised in the selection of localities for fattening beds and for
storage ponds in order to ensure that oysters should be reasonably
free from risk of sewage pollution."
Where such a common article of diet as oysters is subject to
specific pollution, it is not surprising that cases of typhoid fever
should still be numerous. Several epidemics of this disease have
been traced with reasonable amount of certainty to specifically