Oysters.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7920, 28 September 1904, Page 6

Oysters.

About the toothsome oystor:—• One does not like to suppose that when he, or she, site down to an oyster supper there is a risk of contagion. But it appears from the report of Dr, Frengley, formerly Health Officer for the Nelson district, that bivalves fed and preserved in insanitary surroundings are a danger, ous delicacy. There w*s an epidemic of enteric in Nelson in 1903, and in conneotion with the outbreak it was nofcioed a.3 a somewhatcuriouß-circumstance that in the whole number, of persona attacked, a larger proportion had partaken of oysi tersthan would represent the ratio of the I oyster-eating to the, nonoyster-eatibg portion of tbe eomrdunity.' ; Enquiriea made showed that the oyster-laving gronnd was on tbe foreshore, and that at flood tide the concents of ton drains, seven at least carrying domestic sewage and a sewer which brought down the' sewage of some twenty houses, were car- j rica up and over the oysters. At ebb tide the raw sewage of the greater part, of the domestic drainage of Nelson city' all the street drainage, and most of that of the Port, was borne over the oysters These details says Dr. Frengley, though not conclusive proof that the oysters were contaminated by sewage, yet seemed so disgusting shat he had no hesitation .in forbidding the laying of oysters in any parfc of the harbour except on the Boulder Bank. He now further declares it to be his opinion that so long as the ioreshore continues to'be fouled by sew. ago untreated in any way, the harbour of Nelson-must be oonsidered to be unwholesome and dangerous to the consumer of oysterp.'Most people will agree with hirru'. •