334 O ur Food Mollusks 



Lovers of the beautiful are not confined to civilized 

 peoples, and we find that even ancient savages in various 

 parts of the world employed the shells of scallops in many 

 of their rites and ceremonies. 



Every one is familiar with these shells, which are used 

 in many kinds of decorations, and are figured in dec- 

 orative drawings and paintings; but comparatively few, 

 perhaps, are aware that the animals that form them are 

 eagerly sought in many countries for a more utilitarian, 

 and — in the minds of those who may be inclined to agree 

 with a modern French neurasthenic who has declared 

 eating to be one of the most disgusting of human 

 functions — less noble purpose, that of being used for 

 food. However one may regard the function of eating, 

 he has found it to be necessary, and has developed a 

 taste that esteems one thing above another ; and some of 

 those who have come to regard this particular power of 

 discrimination in themselves as an art, have assured us 

 that the scallop is the daintiest of all the foods that the 

 waters produce. 



The reason that so many are unfamiliar with the scal- 

 lop as a food animal is that until recently it has been kept 

 fresh with so great difficulty that it has been shipped only 

 short distances from the shore. The secret of its seem- 

 ingly perishable nature lies in the fact that four and a 

 half quarts of small, yellowish scallop " meats," if soaked 

 in fresh water for a few hours, will emerge plump and 

 white — so greatly bloated, in fact, that they now fill a 

 seven quart measure. Most consumers apparently desire 

 to pay for plumpness and whiteness ; but freshened scal- 

 lops are very perishable, while in a more natural state 

 their keeping properties at the low temperatures of mod- 

 ern refrigeration are nearly if not quite as good as those 



