164 Our Food Mollusks 



formation of the oyster's sexual products, so that in the 

 breeding season, its body appears thin and watery, and 

 observations have shown that under adverse conditions, 

 such as long-continued freshness of water, that is a severe 

 test of vitality, the mortality on infected beds is much 

 greater than elsewhere. This organism seems not to exist 

 in northern waters, where ineffectual search has been 

 made for it. 



It is possible that future study may reveal other organ- 

 isms causing disease in oysters, but extensive epidemics 

 apparently do not occur among them. Any such parasitic 

 forms, causing diseases in the oyster, would probably al- 

 ways be quite harmless if taken into the human digestive 

 tract. The germs of typhoid, that may be carried by the 

 oyster, of course do not harm it. Distantly related or- 

 ganisms do not have the same diseases. 



The list here given is a fairly complete catalog of the 

 oyster's enemies, and when it is considered that very few 

 of them exist in the same region, it would seem that the 

 oyster crop was nowhere menaced by destructive agencies 

 more than is the farmer's wheat or corn. On the whole, 

 it may be doubted if the menace is anywhere so great. 



Yet any one who has a wide acquaintance with the 

 human inhabitants of the shore, has known some who 

 illustrate the fact that those who live on the bounty of 

 nature without other effort than that needed to gather 

 what she has prepared, are apt to be improvident and un- 

 successful. A great many oystermen complain that 

 their business is a poor one and it is. But those who 

 have gone to the sea with the energy requisite to suc- 

 cess anywhere, and with the intelligence necessary to as- 

 sist and direct nature, have found her, like wisdom itself, 

 " easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits." 



