CHAPTER XVI. 



THE OYSTER AND THE DOCTOR. 



CURIOSITIES OF FOOD THE FIRST OYSTER-EATER PHILOXENUS 

 AND THE POULPE THE SPECULATIONS OF A HUMAN STOMACH 

 ON OYSTERS SPECIES OF OYSTERS USUALLY EATEN OPINIONS 

 OF DOCTORS (ANCIENT AND MODERN) SECRET OF THE OYS- 

 TER'S DIGESTIBILITY CHEMICAL ANALYSIS HOW LONG OYS- 

 TERS WILL KEEP THEIR FLAVOUR OYSTER-EATING IN PRUSSIA 

 DISGUSTING WAGERS OYSTERS BETTER THAN PILLS A 

 UNIVERSAL REMEDY WHEN LADIES SHOULD EAT THEM 

 REPUGNANCE OVERCOME OYSTERS AS AN EXTERNAL APPLI- 

 CATION APICIUS AND LUCULLUS GUIDE TO DIGESTION HOW 

 TO TELL IF DEAD BEFORE OPENING. 



THE proverbial saying that " What is one man's meat may 

 be another man's poison ' has its verification within the 

 limits of many a family circle. But it has a national as 

 well as an individual significance, and it has even a wide 

 racial meaning. 



The Mongol, for instance, fares sumptuously and with 

 keen relish on many things from which the Caucasian 

 turns with sickening disgust. There is as much diversity 

 of liking as to things edible between the Ethiopian and 

 the American Indian, and the pangs of starvation would 

 hardly tempt an Afghan to indulge what a Terra del 

 Fuegian would consider a delicacy. But, however wide 



