INTRODUCTION. 



Of the millions who live to eat and eat to live, in this 

 wide world of ours, how few there are who do not, at 

 proper times and seasons, enjoy a good oyster. To the 

 many, not only of the ignorant and stolid, but of the culti- 

 vated and intellectual, an oyster is simply a delicacy. 

 The mere oyster-eater eagerly seizes that double-shell, 

 thrusts his knife forcibly between its valves, gives it a 

 hasty wrench, and extracting daintily the little creature 

 within, instantly swallows it, without consideration. He 

 may think, indeed, that if one oyster be agreeable, two or 

 three dozen will be still more so ; and that there is, there- 

 fore, a large amount of pleasure accessible whenever the 

 head is removed from a barrel of " Milton " or " Colchester 

 natives." But all he does is just to gratify his palate, and 

 to excite or to satisfy the cravings of his stomach. Now I 

 am of opinion that an oyster, only regarded as a thing to 

 be eaten, and having actually but a low place in the 

 ascending series of animals, not only demands, but will 

 richly reward, an enlightened examination. 



It may not be an ungrateful task, therefore, if I 

 endeavour to inform them what species of animals oysters 

 are. In particular that little succulent shell-fish, that 

 affords to man so much gastronomical enjoyment how 

 born and bred and nurtured ; when and where ; and, lastly, 



