Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge.

  • Whitelegge, Arthur, Sir, 1852-1933.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    581/610 (page 573)
    APPENDIX IX. Shell-fish and Infection. • A recent report to the L.G.B. upon Oyster Culture in Relation to Disease, by Dr. Bulstrode and Dr. Klein, deals fully with this question, upon which much additional information has been accumulated in the last few years. Cockles and periwinkles are usually cooked, but mussels are often eaten raw, and if taken from beds to which sewage has access appear to have occasionally. given rise to enteric fever among consumers. Oysters, under like conditions, have been found to convey enteric fever, and the evidence clearly points to a certain ability to transmit the infection of cholera also. In October and November, 1894, a sudden and brief outbreak of enteric fever occurred among the students at Wesley an University, Con- necticut, and was investigated by Prof. Conn. In all, 23 of the students were attacked, 13 of the cases being of severe character, and 4 fatal. The other 10 were of very mild type. A consideration of the elates of attack led to the conclusion that infection must have taken place at the time of a series of initia- tion suppers, and, by exclusion of other possible factors, the one condition common to all sufferers was found to be the eating of raw oysters taken from a certain ground within 100 yards of sewers receiving the drainage of houses in one of which were two persons suffering from enteric fever. Apart from the students, there were a number of guests, two of whom had well-marked enteric fever, and several had less definite diarrhceal attacks. Dr. Chantemesse has recorded that in June, 1896, fourteen persons living in six houses at Saint-Andre-de-Sangonis ate some oysters which had been stored in sewage-contaminated water. All of these persons, but no other members of their households, fell ill. Six had severe attacks of enteric