IV ECONOMY OF THE MUSSEL I I 7 



valuable protection against inundation. " An action for trespass 

 was brought some time ago for the purpose of establishing the 

 right of the lord of the manor to prevent the inhabitants of 

 Heacham from taking mussels from the seashore. The locality 

 is the foreshore of the sea, running from Lynn in a north- 

 westerly direction towards Hunstanton in Norfolk ; and the 

 nature of the shore is such that it requires constant attention, 

 and no little expenditure of money, to maintain its integrity, 

 and guard against the serious danger of inundations of the sea. 

 Beds of mussels extend for miles along; the shore, attaching 

 themselves to artificial jetties running into the sea, thereby 

 rendering them firm, and thus acting as barriers against the sea 

 [and as traps to catch the silt, and thus constantly raise the 

 level of the shore]. Therefore, while it is important for the 

 inhabitants, who claim a right by custom, to take mussels and 

 other shell-fish from the shore, it is equally important for the 

 lord of the manor to do his utmost to prevent these natural 

 friends of his embankments and jetties from being removed in 

 large quantities." ^ 



The fable that Bideford Bridge is held together by the 

 byssi of Mytilus, which prevent the fabric from being carried 

 away by the tide, has so often been repeated that it is perhaps 

 worth while to give the exact state of the case, as ascertained 

 from a Town Councillor. The mussels are supposed to be of 

 some advantage to the bridge, consequently there is a by-law 

 forbidding their removal, but the corporation have not, and 

 never had, any boat or men employed in any way with regard 

 to them. 



Poisoning by mussels is much more frequent than by oysters. 

 At Wilhelmshaven,^ in Germany, in 1885, large numbers of 

 persons were poisoned, and some died, from eating mussels 

 taken from the harbour. It was found that when transferred to 

 open water these mussels became innocuous, while, on the other 

 hand, mussels from outside, placed in the harbour, became 

 poisonous. The cause obviously lay in the stagnant and 

 corrupted waters of the harbom-, which were rarely freshened by 

 tides. It was proved to demonstration that the poison was not 

 due to decomposition ; the liver of the mussels was the poisonous 

 part. In the persons affected, the symptoms were of three 

 ^ :\r. S. Lovell, Edible Mollusks, p. 49. 2 Science, vii. p. 175. 



