ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 49 



fully, too, does he note down from whom he procured 

 them, and the name of the famous gourmet who at the first 

 bite was able to tell whether an oyster came from Circeii or 

 the Lucrine Sea, or from any part of Natolia. The 

 ancients, our teachers in all arts, but especially in aesthetics, 

 did not bolt the oyster, but masticated it. With true 

 Epicurean tact, they always extracted the full enjoyment 

 out of the good things set before them. Not so we ; 

 most of us now bolt them ; but this is a mistake, for the 

 oyster has a much finer flavour, and is far more nourishing, 

 when well masticated. 



The Romans needed not even the use of their teeth 

 to tell them from whence the oyster came ; a mere look 

 sufficed to distinguish it, as may be seen' in the following 

 lines ascribed to Lucilius :- 



" When I but see the oyster's shell, I look and recog- 

 nize the river, marsh or mud, where it was raised." 



Nor was this so very difficult a matter, for the shell, 

 no less than the animal itself, as has already been shown, 

 exhibits the nature of the food upon which the oyster has 

 fed. From the time that the preference was given to the 

 British mollusc, thousands of slaves were employed on the 

 shores of the Atlantic, in procuring the oysters, which in 

 Rome were paid for by their weight in gold. The expenses 

 were so great that the censors felt themselves obliged to 

 interfere. Not content with getting their oysters from 

 distant shores, they had means by which to preserve them 

 for some time, in hot weather ; for which purpose, as we 

 see in the Pompeian model-house , at the Crystal Palace, 

 their domiciles were furnished with a receptacle for water ; 

 for with those famous epicures the water-vivary was an 

 essential necessary for the preservation of living fish, and 



