CHAPTER III. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OYSTER. 



The body of an oyster is not a simple, unorganized 

 lump of flesh, but a complicated organism, made up 

 of many parts, each one so related to the other parts 

 that we must study the whole animal before we can 

 understand the admirable adjustment of each organ to 

 its use. 



The oyster is unintelligible until we have studied 

 the organs which compose it, and the organs them- 

 selves are unintelligible unless they are studied as 

 constituent parts of the whole. 



The oyster is a unit, a complete individual whole, 

 made up of units of a lower order, the organs, in 

 somewhat the same way that a regiment of soldiers is 

 a unit, made up of units of a lower order, the com- 

 panies. 



A description of the organs of the oyster does not, 

 however, by any means complete the analysis of its 

 body, for when any part is studied under a micro- 

 scope, after it has been properly prepared, it is found 

 to be made up of units of a still lower order, just as 

 each company is made up of individual soldiers, or 

 as the ten dimes which make a dollar are themselves 

 made up of cents. 



