382 



OYSTER. 



were celebrated for their parks or preserves of 

 oysters. 



The edible oyster of Britain was deemed superior 

 to that of all other countries, and was famed from the 

 time of Juvenal, who flourished at the beginning of 

 the second century. In satirising the epicure Mon- 

 tanus, he writes : 



" He, whether Circe's rock his oysters bore, 

 Or Lucrine Lake, or distant Richboro's shore, 

 Knew at first taste." 



Sergius Grata appears to have been the first in- 

 ventor of the stews, or layers of oysters, similar to 

 those of our present time. He derived great profit 

 from them, as an article of commerce, to pamper the 

 luxurious taste of others, rather than to gratify his 

 own appetite. Grata gained much credit for his 

 Lucrine oysters, for, says Pliny, the British were then 

 not known. 



Leuwenhoeck, whose microscopic investigations 

 have led to so many interesting discoveries in natural 

 history, gives the following observations respecting 

 the oyster : " In the clear liquor around the animal, 

 many minute round living animalculae have been found, 

 whose bodies being conjoined, form -spherical figures 

 with tails, not changing their place otherwise than 

 by sinking to the bottom ; being heavier than the 

 fluid, these have been seen separating, and coming 

 together again. In other oysters animalculse of the 

 same kind were found not conjoined, but swimming 

 by one another, where they seemed in a more perfect 

 state, and were judged by him to be the animalcule 

 or semen of the oyster. 



" A female oyster being opened, incredible numbers 

 of small oysters were seen covered with little shells, 

 perfectly transparent, and swimming along slowly in 

 the liquor ; and in another female the young ones 

 were found of a brown colour, and without any 

 appearance of life or motion." 



In the month of August oysters are supposed to 

 breed, because young ones are then found in them. 

 Leeuwenhoeck, on the 4th August, opened an oyster, 

 and took out of it a prodigious number of minute 

 oysters, all alive, and swimming about nimbly in the 

 liquid, by means of certain exceedingly small organs, 

 extending a little way beyond their shells, and these 

 he calls their beards. 



In these little oysters he could discover the joinings 

 of the shells, and perceived that there were some 

 dead ones, with their shells gaping. These, though so 

 extremely minute, " were seen to be as like the large 

 oyster as one egg is to another." 



As to their size, he computes that 120 of them 

 in a row would extend an inch, and consequently that 

 a globular body, whose diameter is an inch, would, if 

 they were also round, be equal to 1,728,000 of them. 

 He reckons 3,000 or 4,000 are in one oyster, and 

 found many of the embryo oysters among the beards, 

 some fastened thereto by slender filaments, and others 

 lying loose. He likewise found animalculae in the 

 liquor, 500 times less than the embryo oyster. 



A very curious fact rests upon the evidence of M. 

 de Lavoge, who recently remarked, on opening an 

 oyster, a shining matter or bluish light, resembling a 

 star, about the centre of the shell, which appeared to 

 proceed from a small quantity of real phosphorus. 

 On being taken from the animal, it extended to nearly 

 half an inch in length, and, when immersed in water, 

 seemed in. every respect the same as the phosphorus 



obtained from bones ; but, as the oyster was perfectly 

 alive and fresh, the light could not proceed from any 

 decomposition of the shell of the animal. How and 

 to what purpose was it then produced ? Future ob- 

 servation may possibly throw a fresh light on this 

 luminous property. 



The space allotted to us will not permit our en- 

 larging much more on the history of the oyster. We 

 must necessarily, however, add a few more observa- 

 tions respecting this delicacy and very important 

 branch of British commerce. We have before us a 

 well authenticated account of the quantities annually 

 sold at Billingsgate alone, and it exceeds all reason- 

 able imagination. The beds occupy portions of the 

 sea, in shallow parts, extending for miles square ; and, 

 in some places, thej depth of stratum is very con- 

 siderable. Various companies are formed who send 

 the produce of the season to market ; and each has 

 a particular name to indicate the quality. The price 

 varies considerably, but the quality but little, when 

 the oysters are prepared for sale by subsequent at- 

 tention, or after-feeding, as it is termed. Many per- 

 sons have different modes of fattening oysters ; but 

 none is positively asserted to be the best. Well- 

 salted spring-water frequently changed agrees better 

 with the fish for the short time occupied before its 

 consumption, than any admixture of oat-meal or other 

 farinaceous matter, frequently added by the London 

 retail fishmongers. The sale of oysters at Billingsgate 

 is regulated by the city laws, and an inspector ap- 

 pointed to each boat, as its cargo is sold off. A very 

 trifling due is claimed by the city, but it averages a 

 large income in the aggregate ; and the trade pro- 

 duces some of the best sailors in the world : the risks 

 they incur would daunt any other race of men than 

 the British tars, whose courage and perseverance in 

 the eminent risks their dangerous profession exposes 

 them to, has rendered our sea-girt isle the admiration 

 and envy of every other nation. A sailor may be said 

 to be an animal sui generis in the scale of creation; 

 but to his prowess we owe our greatness principally, 

 as one of the greatest and most enlightened nations 

 of the world. Some idea may be farmed of the ex- 

 tent of oyster banks or beds by the following extract 

 from an observant and veracious person, who states, 

 that " of all the natural phenomena on an extensive 

 scale, which arrested his attention during a visit to 

 America, exciting his admiration of the ways of Pro- 

 vidence, none equalled the oyster banks on the sea- 

 board of Georgia. The land from the sea is com- 

 pletely alluvial for about the distance of twelve to 

 eighteen miles, and in general consists of uncultivated 

 marsh lands, through which an iron rod might be 

 thrust to the depth of eighteen or twenty feet. 



"A great number of large creeks and rivers are found 

 meandering through these marsh lands, and, owing to 

 the sinuosities invariably resulting from running water, 

 the bends of these rivers would, in a short time, cut 

 away the adjoining land to such an extent, as would 

 make the whole seaboard a quagmire. But it is a 

 remarkable fact, that wherever the tide bends its 

 force, its effects are counteracted by walls of living 

 oysters, which grow upon each other from the beds 

 of the rivers to the very verge of the banks. These 

 hillocks are often found in bunches among the long 

 grass growing upon the surface of the soil. They 

 are in such abundance, that a vessel of a hundred 

 tons might load herself in three times her own length. 

 These banks are the favourite resort of fish and birds, 



