CHAP, viii.] CONTROVERSIES ABOUT OYSTER LIFE. 335 



fact the internal structure of the oyster, while it is excellently 

 adapted to that animal's mode of life, is exceedingly simple. 



It is not my purpose in the present work to enter into 

 the minutiae of oyster life. Indeed, there have been so many 

 controversies about the natural history of this animal as to 

 render it impossible to narrate in the brief space I can devote 

 to it a tenth part of what has been written or spoken about 

 the life and habits of the " breedy creature." Every stage of 

 its growth has been made the stand-point for a wrangle 

 of some kind. As an example of the keenness with which 

 each stage of oyster life is now being discussed, I may men- 

 tion that in the summer of 1864 a most amusing squabble 

 broke out in the pages of the Field newspaper on an im- 

 material point of oyster life, which is worth noting here 

 as an example of what can be said on either side of a ques- 

 tion. The controversy hinged upon whether an oyster while 

 on the bed lay on the flat or convex side. Mr. Frank Buck- 

 land, who originated the dispute, maintained that the right, 

 proper, and natural position of the oyster, when at the bottom 

 of the sea, is with the flat shell downwards. Mr. James 

 Lowe, a gentleman who takes great interest in pisciculture, 

 and who has explored the oyster-beds of France, held the 

 opinion that the oyster is never in its proper position except 

 when the flat shell is uppermost. Of course, the natural posi- 

 tion of the oyster is of no practical importance whatever ; and 

 I know, from personal observation of the beds at Newhaven 

 and Cockenzie, that oysters lie both ways, indeed, with a 

 dozen or two of dredges tearing over the beds it is impossible 

 but that they must lie quite higgledy-piggledy, so to speak. 

 A great deal that is incidentally interesting was brought up in 

 the discussion to which I have been referring. There have 

 been several other disputes about points in the natural history 

 of the oysters one in particular as to whether that animal is 

 provided with organs of vision. Various opinions have been 



