On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 241 
shells were thus put, originated the word Buccinum, which among the 
ancients included at least a third of the known univalvyes.* 
VII. Murex 
Another species of Murex (?) was used by the Greeks in prepar- 
ing a pigment for painters; but the color was obtained from the out- 
side of the shell, and not from the fish, as was the purple dye.t 
? 
IX. Osrrea epuuts, (Linn.)—European Oyster. 
Ancient History——The oyster has probably been used from the 
earliest periods. As they lie in comparatively shallow water, quickly 
increase in numbers and size, and offer a very nutricious and refresh- 
ing food, we may reasonably suppose that the aborigines of those 
countries where they are found, were in general well acquainted with 
them. From Aristotle we learn that the Greeks in his time ate 
them.{ It was as early as A. U. C. 633, that the mode of fattening 
them by laying them in. pits and ponds was introduced to Rome. 
At that time, one Sergius Orata first tried the experiment on the Lu- 
crine oysters, and as he made much money by it and his plan suc- 
ceeding well, it rapidly spread into different districts. As Rome 
increased in luxury, the supply from the immediate coasts was not 
sufficient, and all the shores of the Mediterranean were ransacked 
for the shell fish. They were frequently brought from a great dis- 
tance, and at much expense, to be fattened in Italy for the Roman 
feasts. ‘They abounded at Abydos on the Hellespont ;§ but the 
most celebrated appear to have been procured at Circeum, the La- 
cus Lucrinus, and from Brundusium. Much however of the fame 
of these places appears to have arisen from fashion, as we find wri- 
ters of different times praising as the best those from different dis- 
tricts. ‘The most generally esteemed, however, seem to be those 
from Rutupie, (now Sandwich, in Kent, England,) and which were 
carried to Italy in great numbers. If we consider the difficulties of 
* Dillwyn’s Des. Cat. Vol. 1. p. 727. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxu.cap. 11. Ellis’ 
Poly nesian Researches, Vol. 1. p. 197, where a wood cut of the instrument is 
given. Hughes’ Nat. Hist. of Bartiadow, p. 276. Potter’s Archeologia Greca, 
Vol. 1. p. 79, where there is given a long dissertation on the time in which real 
py ty were introduced instead of tes sh ells, 
“ Concha que pictoribus usui est crassitudine plurimum excedit, at florem 
ium non intra oe sed foris abet ” Arist. de Hist. Anim. lib. v. cap. 15. 
Interpr. Du Vai, tom. il. p. 
t Aristotle de Hist. Aina ib, v. cap. 15. $ Virgil, Georg, i, 207. 
Vou. XXXII.—No. 2. 31 
