60 ^[lisrary)=i 
FOOD AND ALIMENTATION. 
1!Y L. COTEUX PREVOST, M.D. 
( Continued from page 60.) 
Personally, [ do not know whether these lovely drinks really have 
a pernicious influence upon the "eye" of oysters, but all I can say, is 
that everytime I perchance witnessed any indigestion brought on by 
this association of wines and oysters, it was that the quantity of liquids 
ingulfed had been totally out of proportion with the laws or sobriety, 
required by any reasonable stomach. 
Mussels {Mytiius cdulis) are not generally known in Canada, at least 
in restaurants. In France they delight those who are really fond of 
delicious eatables. But if ever your good fate takes you to Paris, beware 
of what they call there : " Moules a la Mariniere." 
If you should forget this wise advise you might pay dearly the 
satisfaction of your legitimate curiosity. I sa v some of my friends 
twisted by the most excruciating colics, accompanied with an abundant 
rash of urticaria, owing to their having eaten but a few mussels. In 
Ireland, these shells seem to be less poisonous. In 1874, I had just 
arrived in Dublin, where I entered the Rotunda Hospital as resident 
pupil. One evening towards 10 or it o'clock, 1 was leaning on the 
window sill of my room thinking of my absent native land, when I 
heard a strolling dealer bawling out his goods, contained in a basket 
suspended to his arm. Impossible to understand what he was offering 
from door to door. " What is he saying ?" I asked my room companion. 
"This is the Cockle dealer" he answered. These Cockles are mussels 
which delight the people in Dublin. Every night they constitute the 
family revel, every body eats them with a glass of sherry wine and I 
never heard that they had the reputation of being hard to digest. 
While we are under water, gentlemen, we must not get out without 
saying a word about fish. 
As far as digestibility is concerned, fishes may be divided in 3 
groups: those with white flesh such as trout, haddock, etc., they are the 
most digestible, but the least nutritious ; those with yellow flesh, such 
as salmon are of a slower digestion but contain more nutritious principles ; 
thirdly those with fat flesh such as eel, very nutritious but hard to 
