146 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



And also uncharitable, 



'Cause naught but Shells come from Table, 



Whereby the Poor small comfort gain, 



Yet this for Truth I will maintain, 



That with a glass of good Canary, 



(Oh ! which to drink too much be chary ;) 



Being wash'd down, I say with sack, 



No commendations they need lack ! " 



Oysters are very beneficial to persons who suffer from 

 weak digestions, but then they must be eaten raw, and 

 without vinegar or pepper, and I have known an invalid 

 able to eat oysters when quite unable to take any other 

 food; and oysters are also recommended for consumptive 

 patients. Mr. Frank Buckland gives the following- 

 description of the composition of an oyster, viz., the 

 chemical ingredients contained in them, " Oysters con- 

 tain a great deal of water of the same composition as 

 sea- water j namely, hydro-chlorate of soda, hydro- 

 chlorate of magnesia, sulphate of lime, sulphate of soda, 

 and sulphate of magnesia, phosphate of iron and lime. 

 Then they contain much osmazome, or creatine. You 

 cannot see osmazome very well, but osmazome is the 

 smell of roast beef. It is the same thing as the essence 

 of meat. The oyster also contains a certain quantity of 

 gelatine and mucus, which renders it so digestible, and 

 thirdly, it contains an animal material of which phos- 

 phorus is the principal ingredient. Phosphorus is the 

 principal brain-making form of food that we can take, 

 and therefore those who are fond of literary pursuits, 

 who have to work hard, always find that oysters will 

 bring them better up to the mark than any other form 

 of food that they can take."* 



In China, fresh oysters are used to cure freckles. I 



* ' Report on Oyster Fisheries,' 1876. 



