Etude sur la salubrité des eaux de la rade de Marseille

For a number of years now, the sanitation departments of the city of Marseilles and of the Bouches-du-Rhône "département" have been asked to take care of the quality of the shellfishes, and through that, of the quality of the waters in which these latters are stocked, grown or fished. A number of scientific works have demonstrated the important role played by shellfishes in the spreading of the typhoid fever and therefore drew the attention of the sanitation authorities of a region where, on the one hand, oyster and mussel consumption is huge (more than 3 000 000 kilos/year) and where, on the other hand, an almost permanent typhoid endemic has been manifesting itself. However, until the war, precise investigations, in accordance with the demand of the Academy of Medicine (May 1907) and to the ministerial circulars of September 15th, 1913 and May 15th, 1914, have only been carried out through some studies arising from the demands for coastal concessions.