Chap. 21.] Tilt VARIOUS KINDS OF OTSTER9. 25 



as the whole of the head : care, too, should be taken not to 

 wash it over much ; an observation equally applicable to all 

 kinds of shell-fish, when intended for ibod, the flavour being 

 deteriorated 51 thereby. 



The hippocampus,* 3 taken in drink, neutralizes the poison 

 of the sea-hare. As a counter-poison to dorycniuni, 53 sea- 

 urchins are remarkably useful ; an also in eases where persons 

 have taken juice of carpathum 6 * internally; more particularly 

 if the urchins aro used with the liquor in which they are 

 boiled. Uoilcd sea-crabs, too, are looked upon as highly effi- 

 cacious in cases of poisoning by dorycnium ; and as a neutral- 

 i^er of the venom of the sea-hare they are particularly good. 



CHAP. 21. (G.) THE VAHIOUS KINDS OF OYSTKIIS ! FIFTY-EIGHT 



KKMKD1ES AND OBSERVATIONS. PUliPLES : NINE BEMED1ES. 



Oysters, too, neutralize the venom of the sea-hare and now 

 that we are speaking of oysters, it may possibly be thought that 

 I have not treated of this subject at sufficient length in the 

 former part" of my work, seeing that for this long time past 

 the palm has been awarded to them at our tables as a most 

 exquisite dish. Oysters love fresh water and spots 56 where 

 numerous rivers discharge themselves into the sea ; hence it 

 is that the pclagia 57 are of such small size and so few in num- 

 ber. Still, however, we do find them breeding among rocks 

 and in places far remote from the contact of fresh water, as in 

 the neighbourhood of Grynium 5 * and of Myrina, 19 for example. 

 Generally ppeakiug, they increase in size with the increase of 

 the moon, as already stated by us when 60 treating of the aqua- 

 tic animals : but it is at the beginning of summer, more par- 



61 There is considerable truth in this observation. 



5:: The sea-horse, the Syngnuthus hippocampus of Linnicus. Sec B. ix. 

 C. 1. w See B. xxi. c. 10,5. 



fi; The same, probably, as the "opocarpathon" of 15. xxviii. c. 45, a 

 substance whieh docs not appear to have bt en identified with any degree 

 of certainty. See also c. 31 of the present Book. 



M B. ix.'c. 70. 



u Ajnsson re-marks that these statements are consistent with fact. 



i: '* Lfocpsta " oysters. 



M In Asia Minor." Sec B. v. c. 32, where it is called " Grynia." 



59 In Lemnos. See B. iv. c. 23, and B. v. c. 32. 



60 This is an error : the statement is made, not in B. ix., but in B. iL 

 C. 109. 



