Report of experiments and observations on the vitality of the bacillus of typhoid fever and of sewage microbes in oysters and other shellfish / by E. Klein.

  • Klein, E. (Edward), 1844-1925.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of experiments and observations on the vitality of the bacillus of typhoid fever and of sewage microbes in oysters and other shellfish / by E. Klein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    exception of a few isolated instances in which since 1896 an improvement in oyster layings and oyster storage has been effected, the general system obtaining in a good many instances, viz., of exposing oysters to “be periodically bathed in sewage more or less dilute,” is still the same as it was in 1895, that is to say, “ conditions which may at any time involve risk of the fouling of such shellfish with the excreta of persons suffering from diseases of the type of cholera and enteric fever.’’ As a matter of fact, I have in several instances discovered the B. typhosus in shellfish coming from polluted sources. These are the instances:— 1. In a sample of oysters derived from Grimsby in 1895. 2. In a sample of oysters brought over direct from America, 1903. 3. In a sample of mussels gathered from a polluted place on the shore of Southend-on-Sea, 1904. 4. In a sample of oysters gathered from a place in Lang- stone Harbour, about 600 yards distance from the Portsmouth sewer outfall, 1904. I shall have presently an opportunity of showing that the identification of this microbe in such shellfish is a matter of no small difficulty, owing to such shellfish always containing a large amount, and in preponderance, of sewage microbes, greatly impeding the identification. In order to detect the B. typhosus in shellfish or other materials (water, milk) exposed to sewage pollution, and therefore harbouring sewage microbes, the former must be present in appreciable numbers, and if found would a priori conclusively indicate that the •specific pollution (i.e., with typhoid excreta) must have been considerable. Until the last few years such identification was an almost hopeless task, but at present the task has been facilitated to a considerable degree by the discovery by Drigalski and Conradi of a culture medium, on which the presence of the B. typhosus can be easier detected than by the former methods. I say easier, although I should not omit to add that also by this method its presence must be in fair proportion. The first case in which the typhoid bacillus was found in the’Grimsby oysters was described in the Beport of