OYSTERS AND TYPHOID.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 30 May 1913, Page 3

OYSTERS AND TYPHOID.

A discovery of importance to lover s of shell-fish has been made by a French savant. By many and patient experiments, M. Fabre-Domergue has proved that oysters may be made perfectly safe oatir.g by the simple me.m.s of keeping them for five or six days in fresh sea-water, filtered and constantly renewed. The oyster is not, he finds, intrinsically contaminated by the presence of typhoid germs, which, if existent in the water of the beds wherein the oysters are laid, will certainly be found in their shells; but those' germs are merely temporary parasites upon the oyster, and will die off in a few days m perfectly pure surroundings. The experimenter put contaminated oysters in that position, and invariably found that within a week they had become 1 quite freed from the evil germs. It i will suffice then, for "the powers that be" at Billingsgate to order that all oysters shall undergo such a. tem- ! porary "stabulation" before they are ; put on sale, to ensure their being a ! perfectly safe food. Meantime, it is I something to know that lemon-juice \ and" ordinary vinegar am both antiseptics and germ-killers, and that we unconsciously protect ourselves to some extent against dangers lurking in oysters nnd salnds by dressing them 'with those acids. Fortunately, it i s often scientifically proved that the experiences of ages has forestall- | ed modern experiment and has tauffht ' us to do the right thing in diet, withI out knowing the why and the wherefore, !\f a habit or as a pure nntter of tast<*. ' "Who first tasted an oyster, and\ who firs': squeezed a lemon or over one, we can W'eY Vr.ow;, but clearly they were well oyster is not only an alterable vi"nd. it is singularly di- ' gesiib'le, ; nnd also conveys into the system of the eater in a pleasant form a dose of sea-water in a prepared state, which is scientifically admitted +o be often beneficial to the health. In fac when changes to the seaside ' t orestore health were first ordered : , by doctors, drinking from the ocean J was made a part of the treatment, j just as at inland spas people bathe ' in and s w:illow the nauseous but bene- ) ficent. natural combinations gf salts lin the waters. Well, if the raw oyster be not contaminated, it serves a* .a vehicle for n splendilly beneficial dose of "the briny." * j|