An epidemic of typhoid fever occurred at Wesleyan University in the latter part of November, 1894, which affected only certain students to the number of thirty, who had attended college-society suppers and eaten raw oysters. A very thorough investigation was made by Prof. H. W. Conn into the aetiology of the epidemic, and the following account of it was published in the New York Times on November 20, 1894:

"The investigators at first ascertained that neither the water of the college well nor the milk supply had been the agent of infection. Six college societies had given initiation suppers. All of the oysters eaten at these suppers had come from one dealer, who had obtained them from one oyster grower. At three of these suppers raw oysters were served, and all of the thirty victims had partaken of the oysters in this condition; no one of those present at the other three suppers, where only cooked oysters were served, was attacked by the disease. These facts indicated that the germs of typhoid had been conveyed in the water and other matter which accompanied the raw oysters. How had that water and other matter become infected?

"The oyster grower, who lives on the shore of the Quinnipiac River, a stream which flows into New Haven harbour, had been in the habit of laying down his oysters for a day or two in the river, after taking them from the deep salt waters of the Sound and before putting them on the market. At about the time when the first cases appeared at the university his wife died of typhoid fever. His daughter had been ill with the same disease. The oysters which were sold to the students had been bedded temporarily in the river at a point near the place where a short drain from his house discharges into the stream. The water became infected by the flow from the drain, and when the oysters were taken up the liquid and other matter which accompanies oysters so dislodged, either on the outside of the shell or inside of it, contained the germs of typhoid. Cooking killed these germs, but the raw oysters carried to those who ate them a dose of typhoid poison. It is reported that several recent cases of typhoid in New Haven have been traced to infection thus conveyed by oysters from the same river".

It has generally been believed heretofore that typhoid bacilli do not develop in salt water, but the circumstantial evidence points strongly to their having existed in the brackish water above described, and, according to Foote, of New Haven, the typhoid bacillus will live eight days in water from an oyster bed. The oyster juice also contains the bacilli, and the bacilli injected into oysters live a fortnight in abundance, and are known to have survived for thirty days.

Two fatal cases of typhoid fever have been reported in Berlin as due to infection from raw oysters. Sir William Broadbent reported in the British Medical Journal ten cases which he saw during November and December, 1894, and attributed to the same origin. A number of cases have been traced in Italy and France to the eating of raw oysters. Arthur Newsholme, of Brighton, England, studied 181 cases of typhoid fever occurring there from 1893 to 1896, of which nearly one third were attributed to eating raw shellfish - 36 to oysters, and 20 to other varieties. All the shellfish were contaminated by sewage.

In 1903 an epidemic of typhoid fever in London was traced to the eating of shellfish contaminated by sewage, and in the same year 18 cases occurring in Glasgow were traced to the eating of cockles similarly contaminated. Typhoid bacilli were obtained from the cockles and gave the agglutination reaction. Eight other cases developed in one family in a neighbouring town, all of whom had eaten the cockles.

Sewage contamination of shellfish has thus been shown to explain the outbreaks of typhoid fever in which the water supply of towns or villages has been proved to be absolutely pure. Shellfish are scavengers of the sea, and as they have better sale when they are well fattened the oystermen are in the habit of replanting them near sewage drainage in shallow water for a few weeks before they are sold. The public, however, have been repeatedly warned of the danger of eating raw shellfish thus treated. Lean or unfattened deep sea shellfish may be eaten raw, without fear of infection, and thorough cooking renders shellfish innocuous, as it does all food from a bacteriological standpoint.

Oysters may also give rise to severe enteritis, and possibly cholera when derived from infected sewage beds. Frankland, however, has determined that cholera bacilli injected into oysters do not survive more than twenty-four hours.

It is possible, although it is not definitely proved, that typhoid bacilli may be conveyed upon raw vegetables and fruits which have been washed in contaminated water. It is known that cholera germs are conveyed in all of these ways. For this reason, as well as from the necessity of avoiding diarrhoea, it is customary to advise against the use of all raw fruits and vegetables during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic.

Diphtheria And Scarlatina

Diphtheria germs, and even those of scarlatina, can be conveyed in milk should they have access to it. Several epidemics of both diseases have been traced among families employing in common a milkman whose children at home had one or the other disease. In Buffalo, N. Y., in 1899, an epidemic of 29 cases of scarlatina was definitely traced to consumption of milk delivered by one milkman, who obtained the supply from a farmer who had the disease at the time of milking.

Foot-And-Mouth Disease

The foot-and-mouth disease may be propagated from the use of milk from an infected cow. Sometimes this milk is of a bad taste and odour, or it may even be mixed with blood or pus if the nipples are excoriated or if the udders are inflamed. In other cases the milk appears normal, but when boiled coagulates readily into small flocculi in a bluish whey. Such milk is rendered innocuous by the process of boiling. Children are more likely to contract the disease in this way than are adults, owing to their greater consumption of cow's milk.

The gums become swollen, red, and tender, aphthous ulcers appear on the lips and gums, the submaxillary glands and tonsils may be swollen, vesicles and pustules may appear on the tongue, lips, and extremities, and there is moderate fever with vomiting and diarrhoea. The disease promptly subsides on stopping the use of infected milk.