734 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [52] 
One hundred parts of dried oyster-meat contain 7.69 to 7.81 parts of 
nitrogen, and 100 parts of fresh oyster-meat contain 1.85 to 1.87 parts of 
nitrogen. By burning the dried oyster-meat we can obtain the amount 
of inorganic material which it contains. By this method it has been 
found that the meat of completely dried Schleswig-Holstein oysters, 
when deprived of the beard, contains 7.45 per cent. of inorganic sub- 
stances, while in those which have not been dried the amount is only 
1.79 per cent. According to these determinations, 100 parts of the 
bodies of fresh edible Schleswig-Holstein oysters, contain— 
77.00 parts of water. 
21.21 parts of organic material. 
1.79 parts of inorganic material. 
The principal inorganic substances are salt (sodic chloride) and phos- 
phoric acid. The proportion of salt in fresh oysters is 0.58 per cent., 
and of phosphoric acid 0.38 per cent. In fresh beef the proportion of 
salt is 0.49 per cent., and of phosphoric acid 0.22 per cent. From these 
results it is evident that the oyster contains as much food substance as 
the better sorts of meat used for food, oreven somewhat more. In addi- 
tion to this, it is still farther distinguished from the greater number of 
animal foods by being more easily digested. Butif we compare the price 
of oysters with the price of equal quantities of the best kinds of ordinary 
meats, we find that, with us, the oyster furnishes a much more costly 
means of nourishment than the others. If the edible portions of a dozen 
Holstein oysters weigh 125 grams, or one-fourth of a pound, and if that 
number cost 2 marks (50 cents), then the oyster, as a means of nourish- 
ment, is 64 times more expensive than beef-steak, at 1 mark 20 pfennige 
(30 cents) per pound. The value of an oyster does not depend princi- 
pally upon the amount of nourishment which it contains, but chiefly 
upon its delicacy and uniformly fine flavor. Oysters form the finest 
article of food which our seas produce—food which can be eaten fresh 
from the water, and which requires no artistic cooking to develop its ex- 
cellencies. They resemble the noble pearls, which attain their greatest 
perfection in the place of their growth. What particular constituent of 
the oyster it is which gives it its flavor is as little known as the origin of 
the flavor of various other kinds of food. The liver and the generative 
organs contain glycogen and grape-sugar. Pure glycogen has no taste, 
and it is composed, as is grape-sugar, of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 
Probably the fatty matters aid greatly in giving flavor to the oyster. I 
have repeatedly found that in May and the first half of June, when the 
generative organs are very much developed, the females have a much 
finer, nut-like, and full flavor than the males. 
I have repeatedly placed fresh oysters, whose sex I had previously 
ascertained by means of the microscope, before different people in order 
to get their opinions of the flavor. They also, without knowing any- 
thing about the difference in sex, found the female superior in flavor to 
the male, Those females which are well developed are generally some- 
