THE OTSTEK. 73 



or other shell-fish has been taken, the unpleasant sensa- 

 tion excited by such excess may be removed by drinking 

 half a pint of hot milk. Persons of delicate constitu- 

 tions will do well always to take hot milk after 

 oysters. 



But the oyster was also formerly used externally as a 

 remedy no less than taken internally for its medicinal 

 properties. Its very abundance is a clear proof of the 

 bounty and goodness of Providence, fiirnishing us, at 

 one and the same time, with such delicious food, and so 

 universal a remedy for the ills which man is heir to. 

 Ambrois Pare, physician to Charles IX,, and the only 

 Protestant whom the king sought to save from the ter- 

 rible massacre of St. Bartholomew, by shutting him up 

 in his own closet, recommends oysters smashed in their 

 shells as an excellent poultice. ^^ This animal, so used," 

 says he, ^' diminishes pain, and removes aU heat and 

 inflammation in a remarkable manner." As the opinion 

 of one, of whom the king himself declared that '' a man 

 so useful to all the world ought not to perish like a 

 dog," it may be admitted to a place in my little book, 

 more particularly as it is borne out by Paul Egona, who 

 also recommends oysters being smashed and saturated 

 with their own liquor as the very best of all poultices 

 for sores or boils. 



Let me, as a close to this chapter, add a few words on 

 the chemical analysis of the oyster. The animal itself 

 ontains a great proportion of phosphate of iron and 

 lime, a considerable quantity of osmozone, and a certain 

 imount of gluten and isinglass, being of a peculiar 

 aature, which phosphorus penetrates like an element. 



F 



