124 • THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and then amounted to total wreck, and always caused bitter complaints against the city. The total sales in and 

 about "Washington market were estimated at $3,000,000 annually, which, again, I must beg the reader to regard as 

 an overestimate. 



"It is only within the last five or six years," says this writer, "that the dealers commenced shipjjiug in the 

 shell, and at present a most extensive trade is carried on with Cincinnati, St. Louis, and several other western 

 cities. Before this they were sent in kegs hermetically sealed * * * as far as California * * ». Pickled 

 oysters are sent to every i^art of the United States by our dealers, and immeuse quantities are bought for shipment 

 by vessels." 



The recapitulation with which these newspaper reports closed is annexed : 



Number of boats of all sizes fSO to 250 tons) in the Virginia oyster-trade 1, (100 



111 the East and North river trade 200 



In the Shrewsbury trade 20 



In the Blue Point and sound trade 100 



In the York bay trade 200 



Total I,n20 



Sales of Virginia oysters, including those planted in Prince's bay $3, 000, 000 



East and North river oysters 1,500, 000 



Slirewsbury oysters 200, 000 



Blue Point and Sound oysters 200,000 



York bay oysters 300,000 



Total sales 5,200,000 



Oyster panics in 1839 and 1855. — In 1839 a law was passed prohibiting the sale of oysters in New York 

 from May 1 to September 1. This law became a dead letter, but was about to be enforced by Mayor Henry Wood 

 in 1855, when the oystermeu, alarmed, urged its modification, saying that when the law was framed little or no 

 transplanting was done; that transplanted oysters (from Virginia) did not spawn, and therefore were not harmful, 

 even if all milky oysters were to be regarded so, the correctness of which view several dealers denied with an 

 intelligence in advance of their hearers. The discussion waxed warm, and in the spring of 1850 the board of 

 health had hearings before them upon the matter, in which certain interesting facts came out. It was stated that 

 there were nearly 800 persons iu New York (no doubt including the whole tributary neighborhood) who at that 

 time imported oysters from Virginia, employing 200 vessels — a number much nearer the truth than the "1,000 

 vessels" of the HeraWs story. All the summer oysters sold in the city were southern; all agreed they were 

 perfectly healthy. The counsel for the oystermeu read a statement, in which he asserted that iu Clinton market 

 alone oysters were sold as follows: 1853, $885,000; 1851, $914,000. "Add other markets, and the trade involved 

 a yearly capital of over $5,000,000 iu New York city." 



DeVoe's Market Assistant contains the ensuing account of the notorious " oyster riots ": 



An unusual excitement, or rather an "oyster panic", occurred in New York city in October, 1855, which prevailed against the use of 

 oysters as an article of food for several weeks. Several highly-esteemed citizens died very suddenly by cholera, which it was thought was 

 occasioned by eating diseased oysters. Various causes were assigned for their poisonous quality; some attributed it to drought ; others, 

 that the oysters had been taken up during their spawning-time, and thus become diseased. The same complaint and fatal iustauces 

 existed at Baltimore, Alexandria, Georgetown, and other places. 



Dr. James R. Chilton, a noted chemist, after makiug a chemical examination of them, says : "It is not an unusual circumstance that 

 oysters and other shellfish, when eaten after having been kept long during the warm season, will produce serious illness resembling 

 cholera; but no such ill-effects would be likely to arise when they are received fresh from our waters." 



Several years ago oysters were seldom seen for sale in their general spawning-season ; it was not only against the law, as it Is now 

 [1863], but the people would not buy or have them iu their possession. An ordinance was passed in 1839 which reads as follows : " No 

 person shall bring into the city of New York, or have in his or her possession, iu the said city, any oysters, between the first day of May 

 and the first day of September, in any year, under penalty of $5 for any quantity not exceeding one hundred, and the further penalty of $t2 

 for every hundred." 



Fulton and Catherine markets in 1855. — This discussion brought out many special articles in the daily 

 press of the city, which are now of historical interest and large credibility. The Tribune of June 24, 1855, contained 

 the following, in resi^ect to Catherine market: 



Nest to the meat-trade, a more extensive business is done in oysters and clams than iu any other article of food In the market. Tlie 

 stands, of which there are five, are situated at the southerly side of the street, occiqiying the entire front of the fish-market. Eacli dealer 

 Bells on an average about .filOO worth of all kinds every d.ay, making a total of |i:i,000 a week. The fish are generally sold out of the shell, 

 and a large proportion are cooked. 



The account concludes with a table crediting Catherine market with yearly sales of oysters and clams of 

 $150,000 out of a total meat, fish, and produce business of $524,000. Another account in the Herald says $140,000 

 worth of moUusks were sold there iu one year, four-fifths of which are oysters. 



