Analyze each of the following scientific reports, explaining how the pattern of the method of agreement is manifested by each. Discuss, in each case, the limitations of the method of agreement as applied to that quest for a causal connection.

Contaminated scallions, chopped up raw in salsa that was served free to every table at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in western Pennsylvania, almost certainly caused the large outbreak of hepatitis A in the region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. Bunches of scallions (green onions) were stored together in large buckets for five days or more with the ice they had been shipped in from Mexico. As a result, even if only some bunches were tainted with the hepatitis virus when they were delivered, it would have quickly spread to all the other scallions—the ice water in the bucket becoming “hepatitis soup.” The scallions were later rinsed, chopped, refrigerated for two more days, and then added to the salsa which was made in 40-quart batches and kept refrigerated for up to three days. The outbreak, which has killed three people and made 575 other Chi-Chi’s patrons sick, is the nation’s biggest outbreak of hepatitis A from one source. Hepatitis A is spread by fecal matter from infected people, particularly those who fail to wash their hands after using the restroom. The virus does not multiply outside the body, but it can survive in food.
Hepatitis A is a common childhood disease in Mexico, and children commonly work on the scallion farms there; sewage-contaminated water could also have been the culprit, whether used to irrigate the scallions, or wash them, or make the ice used in shipping. How the scallions became contaminated is not known.

—“Government Makes It Official: Blame Scallions for Outbreak,”
The New York Times, 22 November 2003