278 FISH DIET. 



suggestions of M. Coste, that we have been at pains to 

 make them known. The expense to be incurred is com- 

 paratively trifling ; and the details we have given in re- 

 ference to the falling away in the supply of oysters, in 

 particular, as well as of mussels in certain localities, 

 render it too evident that we are in danger of witness- 

 ing a rapid diminution of both these molluscs the one 

 of which is as welcome to the epicure as the other is 

 indispensable to the fisherman. 



We have not been deterred from commending ostreo- 

 culture by the fierce abuse of the old author who main- 

 tains that " oysters are ungodly, uncharitable, and un- 

 profitable meat ungodly, because they are eaten with- 

 out grace ; uncharitable, because they have nothing but 

 shells ; and unprofitable, because they must swim in 

 wine." The last assertion is in notorious opposition to 

 that epicurean oracle, Dr Kitchener, who speaks thus: 

 " Those who wish to enjoy this delicious restorative in 

 its utmost perfection must eat it the moment it is 

 opened, with its own gravy, in the under-shell. The 

 true lover of an oyster will have more regard for the 

 feelings of his little favourite than to abandon it to the 

 mercy of a bungling operator ; he will always open it 

 himself, and contrive to detach the fish from the shell 

 so dexterously that the oyster is hardly conscious he 

 has been ejected from his lodging." " Oysters," con- 

 tinues this famous gastronomer, " being of a mild, bal- 

 samic, and cooling nature, are peculiarly adapted as an 

 article of food to those who are subjected to face-flush- 

 ings, and other feverish symptoms, appearing in nervous 

 and irritable, or consumptive constitutions." The num- 

 ber of red-faced, nervous, or irritable, not to men- 

 tion the consumptive, is so great in these northern 

 regions of ours, that there must be a constant demand 

 for the myriads of oysters which our piscicultural 

 papers will, we trust, be the means of producing. And 

 if, as is too probable, some of our readers, yielding to 

 the seductions of the ' Cook's Oracle/ overload their 



