n 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



GASTRONOMIC CRITICISM. — FOOD FOR THE POOR.— COCKLES. — SPECIES. — 

 ADAPTATIONS. LUCINA. DIPLODONTA. 



CABDIACEA and LUCINID.^. 



Cardium^ or Cockle. — The writer of a book like this should 

 not only be something of an epicure in a general way, so as 

 to have some discriminating appreciation of various flavours, 

 but should have especially made it his business to taste the 

 various kinds of eatable shell-fish, to give a critical opinion 

 of their respective merits. In both these respects, the pre- 

 sent writer feels his deficiency. Oysters and periwinkles 

 (besides having once suffered severely from mussels) consti- 

 tute the utmost amount of his experience in matters of ma- 

 lacological taste. He is ignorant of scallops and razor-fish; 

 and as to cockles, none have ever passed his lips, either hot 

 or cold, roasted, boiled, or raw, and he can only say, that in 



