Oysters obtained from the areas adjoining the City of Manila have been shown to be invariably polluted (Clague, 1950: Division of Public Health Laboratory, 1952; Salafranca, 1952). Corrective measures have, accordingly, been recommended. Realizing the danger posed by these polluted oysters to the health of the people partaking of them, the Secretary of the Department of Health created in 1951, the Committee on Shellfish Industry. The main function of this body is to make experimental studies on the development of an efficient and practical method of purifying oysters. The plans laid out for this purpose have not been put to trial owing to certain difficulties. In the meantime, the experiments reported in this paper were conducted to determine to what extent the common practices observed in preparing oysters for the table affect their bacterial contents, particularly the coliforms.
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