196 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
scarcely able to keep off asphyxia. As if they were inanimate 
merchandise, and not living creatures, they are dispatched by 
rail, tossed about from one van to another; and terribly shaken, 
they at length arrive at an oyster-shop. This is a critical 
moment for the unhappy bivalve. Thrown into a tub of clean 
water, its hopes are cruelly revived, and for a moment it fancies 
its tortures are at an end, and once more it is in the sea. If 
ever it possessed such thoughts, they are soon dissipated, as 
it finds itself taken for the third and last time out of its native 
element. It is now in pitiless hands—a blunt knife, in spite of 
its most strenuous efforts, is thrust between its valves, and with 
a horrible wrench its shells are forced asunder. The muscle by 
which they were closed is cut or rather jagged through, and the 
hinges are violently detached. It is now laid out on a plate, 
exposed to every current of air, and in this state of suffering 
it is carried to the table. There the thoughtless being for whose 
pleasure it has suffered untold woes, powders it with the most 
pungent pepper, squeezes over its wounded and bleeding body 
the abomination of its race, the acrid vinegar; and then, alas! 
with a silver knife, which only jags, but cannot cut, he wounds 
and bruises it a second time; or, worse still, he saws and tears 
and rends it from its remaining shell; then he impales it with a 
three-pronged fork, and—forrzbele dictu /—still living and _ palpi- 
tating, he throws it into his mouth, where the teeth cut, and crush, 
and grind it. 
We have said that oysters have—in common with their family 
—neither head nor arms; that they are without eyes, without 
ears, without nose; they cannot move, they cannot cry. Quite 
true; but all these negatives do not assert that they are insensible 
to pain. Two celebrated Germans, Brant and Ratzeburg, have 
shown that the oyster possesses a well-developed nervous system ; 
and if they have organs of sensation they must suffer. “Can 
an animal with nerves be impassive?” asks Voltaire. “Can we 
suppose any such impossible contradiction in nature ?” 
We hasten, however, to tranquillise the minds of the dredgers, 
the breeders, the sellers, and the consumers of the oysters; and to 
excuse the indifference of the protecting societies; for there is a 
great difference between a helpless, imperfect mollusk and the 
