I2l6 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



per cent. In fresh beef the proportion of salt is 0*49 per 

 cent., and of phosphoric acid o'22 per cent. From these 

 results it is evident that the oyster contains as much food 

 substance as the better sorts of meat used for food, or 

 even somewhat more. In addition to this, it is still fur- 

 ther distinguished from the greater number of animal foods 



by being more easily digested The value of 



an oyster does not depend principally upon the amount of 

 nourishment which it contains, but chiefly upon its delicacy 

 and uniformly fine flavour. 



. . . . What particular constituent of the oyster 

 it is which gives it its flavour is as little known as the 

 origin of the flavour of various other kinds of food. The 

 liver and the generative organs contain glycogen and 

 grape-sugar. Pure glycogen has no taste, and it is com- 

 posed, as is grape-sugar, of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 

 Probably the fatty matters aid greatly in giving flavour to 

 the oyster. I have repeatedly found that in May and the 

 first half of June, when the generative organs are very 

 much developed, the females have a much finer, nut-like, 

 and full flavour than the males. 



I have repeatedly placed fresh oysters, whose sex I 

 had previously ascertained by means of the microscope, 

 before different people, in order to get their opinions of 

 the flavour. They also, without knowing anything about 

 the difference in sex, found the female superior in flavour 

 to the male. Those females which are well developed are 

 generally somewhat thicker and more cream-like in colour 

 than the males, whose bodies are more transparent and 

 watery. In the middle of winter these differences are not 

 so apparent as shortly before the breeding season. Imme- 

 diately after the emission of the generative products, 



