OYSTER. 543 
> 
relatively large proportion of soluble matters.” On concen- 
trating the liquor which accompanies the Oyster within its shell, 
a brown liquid results which is indistinguishable, as regards taste 
and smell, from well-prepared beef-tea ; it develops “‘ osmazome ” 
to a remarkable degree. The boiled Oyster yields scarcely any 
soluble matter to cold water, whilst it becomes tough, and 
indigestible by the process. Oysters contain an albuminous 
juice which increases in hardness with an increase of temperature, 
just as the albumin, or white of an egg does. They should, 
therefore, when cooked be subjected to only a low degree of 
heat, and for a short time, it being borne in mind that 160% 
Fahrenheit is the cooking temperature to coagulate albumen. 
In other words, to boil Oysters is to harden them, and to make 
them difficult of digestion. 
A mistrust of Oysters, as so frequently and undeniably 
conveying typhoid fever during the last few years, because of 
crude sewage gaining unrestricted access to their beds, has 
possessed, and still possesses the public mind. It is, however, 
reassuring to know that the principal Oyster cultivators, whose 
trade therein has suffered to a most serious extent, have instituted 
rigid inspections, and adopted vigorous measures to remedy 
this grave evil. Any suspected Oysters, before coming to table, 
should be first put for several days into salted water, and changed 
several times (without food), so as to scour themselves from 
possible ptomaines, and then the Oysters may be eaten with 
impunity. In the epidemic of typhoid fever recently at 
Winchester (1902) caused by eating contaminated Oysters at 
the Mayor’s Banquet, a local doctor learnt the striking fact 
that the majority of sufferers who then fell ill were pronounced 
teetotallers ; in which connection it would seem that a moderate 
use of diluted alcohol is sufficient to practically prevent mischief 
from typhoid germs. After a series of exhaustive experiments 
made lately by the Chicago Board of Health, it has been 
determined that the typhoid germ literally curls up under the 
action of fresh lemon-juice ; a dose or two of this simple antidote 
produces much the same effect on the microbes of typhoid, as a 
spoonful of salt does on a snail, or slug. It is therefore suggested 
that persons who eat Oysters should unfailingly take fresh 
lemon-juice with them, instead of vinegar, which is commonly used 
as an accompaniment, though a considerable number oi Oyster- 
eaters prefer the bivalve plain. ‘But still later observation 
