| Show HEALTH OF WESTERN PEOPLE eastern cities with a knowledge ot how oysters boyste rs are fattened and pro pared for the market are arc safeguard ing the health of their inhabitants from that which is injurious in tho the 05 oyster ster trade but cities like ogden too far removed from the oyster beds to civo alv a thought to the subject allow the oysters rejected or excluded by uch such I 1 places as new york to be thrown OT on tile the local market it if eastern dealer ers see fit to do so wo we do not know that ogden or salt lake or other western towns have been made the dumping grounds tor for inferior or disease infested oyster but that there is a possibility and imminent danger or of such stich an abuse is plainly disclosed by an eastern authority who explains in the current number of worlds work why the board of health of now new york has passed rules against the sale ot or oysters gathered in suspicious waters W 11 the anster oyster does not prod produce lice the typhoid bacilli it collects thorn them arora the discharges of previous cases or of the disease which have been brought from the mouths of sewers how widespread this possibility of sewage contamination is may be most uncomfortably fort ably shown by the flie investigations of the merchants association of new york tork they showed that of a largo large number of specimens of oysters ayr taken from froin the beds all up and down now york harbor and in the bays of long island nto into I 1 which sewage empties flomo 70 per cent were found to contain the commonest bacterium or of sow age the well known colon bacillus a normal inhabitant of the human all montary canal wherever the colon bacillus can get the typhoid bacillus can get also if any one of the thoi frands ot of individuals whose discharges go 90 into that sewer happens to bo be suffering from typhoid the oyster may catch tile the bacilli not only may but it to te likely to for its food consists of the ooze swept down from the sew say err and streams with its ita swarming bacterial life iffe the oysters whole free surface Is covered with tiny cilia or vibrating hairs which by their incessant lashings keep a J stream of water continually pouring bourin through its shell and across its amouta mouta and gills it IB 10 literally a living sponge trap tor for bacteria it Is protected above and below by limestone plates fastened together at the rear or hinge by an ingenious elastic clastic ligament so 80 attached that when whenever evoi tilo tho little round scallop like dire near the middle of ills his body to Is relaxed tho tha r hells keep open the mouth to ie shut only in tho the presence ot of danger and by a distinct muscular effort tho the oyster farmers discovered thai tha tho the oysters grow and thrived as tho the water around them became muddier and muddier their motto came to lie he the muddier the water the fatter the oyster they accordingly by a series of transplantations trans plantations brou brought glit the oysters boyste rs each time nearer in shore finally landing them close to tle the mouths of rivers and streams and anict even of sowers sewers the english local government board actually discovered two or ahrea enterprising agriculturalists of class who for their final ripening bed habitually used a nice little evenly bottomed pocket just at the houtla of a smal 1 sewer and their oysters wore noted for their fatness and delicacy of flavor the people of ogden do not want vant to be fed on such fat oysters of doitt delicious flavor but they may be if ogdon ogden dues does not require some proof that the casters excluded from the markets or of now new york are not sent to western cities and towns the preservation of the health or the people ot of ogden Is worthy of the most careful on the part of choso entrusted with health regulations tr 11 the board of health of now doens it wise to place restrictions on the oyster trade ogden equally as circumspect should not be slow in lowing the example by inviting other western vestern cities to join in making an anve investigation sti gatlon this Is the raw oyster season and I 1 this is the time to inquire as to where the oysters tor for ogden arc gathered by calling tho the attention of secretary wilson to this possible pollution or foodstuff the departie depart department me nt of agriculture might take some action under abe provisions of the pure food law |
