HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 23 



The above extracts will be all that is necessary 

 to introduce here, the remaining notes being merely 

 accounts of adventures, and repetitions of what has 

 been stated above. From them I think that it is 

 perfectly evident that the oyster is ovoviviparous and 

 monoecious. I am aware that it is even now the 

 opinion of some fishermen, as well as of Bishop Sprat, 

 that they are dioecious ; but although I have examined 

 hundreds of both those which are, as it is termed, black- 

 sick and white-sick, I have never been able to distin- 

 guish any difference in the form of the spawn, the 

 fact being that the spawn is always white until it quits 

 the ovary, and then becomes black. The cause of the 

 exudation of the white is easily accounted for by the 

 ovary being heavily loaded, and the oyster, when dis- 

 turbed, closing its shell. I have seen both white and 

 black spawn escape into the same basket, from the 

 same causes. The Burnham dredging also tends 

 strongly to corroborate this opinion, being quite the 

 end of the spawning season, and there being no white 

 spawn observed, although some were black-sick. I 

 have endeavoured to compute the number of young 

 oysters between the bronchise of a single old one in 

 the following manner : having collected them all with 

 a camel-hair brush, and placed them in strong spirits 

 for twenty-four hours, I dried them on blotting-paper 

 the spirits having removed the glutinous matter, 

 then weighed a tenth part of a grain, and counted 



