Rearing Oysters from the Egg in 



on the original process was published. This designated 

 the original method as " barbarous," because crude, and 

 singularly enough, it attracted much attention from those 

 interested in oyster culture, though in reality it meant 

 nothing. 



It was merely a detailed description of a method of 

 procedure by which one might be able to press mature 

 eggs from the ovaries or the spermatic fluid from the 

 testes of oysters without actually rupturing the sides of 

 their bodies, after the manner of stripping the sexual cells 

 from the bodies of fishes. But even if artificial fertiliza- 

 tion had possessed some practical value, this added 

 nothing whatever to the method employed by Professor 

 Brooks, for unlike the fish that may not be injured in the 

 stripping process, the oyster to be treated must first be 

 opened by severing the adductor muscle and tearing off 

 one valve of the shell, and not so many eggs can be ob- 

 tained. This publication mentioned some anatomical 

 facts and referred to implements that might be employed. 

 It dealt simply with artificial fertilization, and proposed 

 no method for the care of the embryo. Its author almost 

 certainly did not regard it as a real contribution to oyster 

 culture indeed, he stated his opinion that the artificial 

 fertilization of oyster eggs would probably never be prac- 

 tically important. Without doubt, if he had had any idea 

 of the immense amount of attention that it was destined 

 subsequently to attract, of the mistaken interpretation it 

 was to receive, and of the false hopes that it was to 

 waken, he would not have published it. But matters of 

 that sort never can be foreseen, and it was launched on 

 a very remarkable career. 



Shortly afterward there appeared in a publication also 

 designed to encourage the oyster industry a further de- 



