Excerpt from Shellfish Contamination From Sewage-Polluted Polluted Waters and From Other Sources

We hear much nowadays of pure-food supplies, pure-water supplies, and pure-air supplies; but the removal Of the wastes and refuse from our cities, towns, villages, and farmhouses is equally important. For it is with the social organism, the municipality, the village, the family, very much as it is with the human organism; to retain putrefy ing wastes within their borders is an evil similar in character to that which arises in the human body from undue retention of urine or bowel contents. Poisoning ensues in the one case almost as certainly as in the other.

But we have learned our lesson. In the hard school of experience we have learned that hundreds Of epidemics of typhoid fever and Asiatic cholera have come from the use of drinking water tainted with sewage, barely stained it may be with little trickling streams Of water soiled with human excrements. And this it is which has given rise to the great problem Of sewerage and sewage disposal. This it is which has caused numerous commissions, especially in western Europe and America, to study elaborately the pollution and purification of rivers.

The shellfish interests which are engaged in the solution Of this problem rank among the most important industries Of the country. It is estimated that in 1904 there were more than bushels Of oysters marketed in this country, valued at nearly The Operations Of the various shellfish industries extend from Maine to the Gulf Of Mexico on the Atlantic and over a considerable territory along the Pacific coast. Vast areas of sea bottoms are utilized for the purpose of growing oysters, and many men are engaged in the various branches of the industry. An extensive business is also being devel Oped in maturing seed oysters taken from the Atlantic coast and transplanted in the colder waters of the Pacific, notably in the region of Puget Sound, where the conditions are unfavorable for spawning and development.

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