372 THE OCEAN WOKLD. 



Emperor Yitellius. The oyster is nothing more than water slightly 

 gelatinized. Without this Yitellius, all emperor and master of the 

 world as he was, never could have absorbed twelve hundred oysters 

 by way of whetting his appetite. 



The gourmets were long of opinion that the quadrangular pad 

 or cushion in the bivalve was the most savoury and exciting part. 

 Certain distinguished amateur performers adopted and proclaimed 

 the principle of dividing transversely the body of the mollusc, and 

 eating the cushion only. Natural history explains this gastronomical 

 discovery. It recognizes the fact that the bile secreted by the liver is 

 contained in this substance, that it accelerates while it exhausts the 

 qualitative surface of the tongue and palate, aiding also the functions 

 of the stomach. 



We have described the organization of the oyster, and we have said 

 something of the enjoyment it confers. Did it ever occur to the 

 various Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to con- 

 sider whether the oyster might not be a very proper object of their 

 care ? Let us see if we can bridge over the gulf. 



We commence operations upon them by dragging them violently from 

 their own element. We place them out afterwards in water-parks, 

 more or less briny and unsuitable, filled with villainous green matter, 

 which presently pervades their breathing apparatus, impregnating, 

 obstructing, and colouring it ; the oyster swells, fattens, and soon 

 attains that state of obesity which verges on sickness. 



When the poor creature has attained its livid green colour, it 

 is fished up a second time. Alas ! it is now doomed neither to 

 return to the sea, to the park, nor to its native rock. It has water 

 at its disposal only in the very small quantity which it can retain 

 between its two valves, a quantity scarcely sufficient to keep away 

 asphyxia. It is shut up in an obscure narrow basket an ignoble 

 prison-house, without door or window. It seems to be forgotten that 

 they are animals : they are piled upon the pavement like inert mer- 

 chandise. The basket is carried by railway ; the animal, shaken out of 

 existence almost, is at last landed at the door of some oyster-shop ; and 

 this is the critical moment for the poor bivalve ! It is thrown into 

 a tub with clean water enough to remind it of its former luxurious 

 life, when it is again seized by the pitiless master of its fate. 



