32 THE OYSTER. 



last several hours."* Two small leeches (Hirudo bioculata 

 and complanata) often wage successful war against the fresh- 

 water snails so abundant in our ditches ; and another species 

 (H. hyalina), not so cruel in disposition, draws its nourish- 

 ment from the sanies which flows from the Planorbis carina- 

 tus. Its calcareous envelop is no protection to the mussel 

 against the wiles of the Nymphon grossipes ; thousands of 

 littoral shells are devoured by the sea anemones (Actiniae) ; 

 and the common star-fish knows so well how " to force the 

 oyster from his close retreat," and destroys such numbers of 

 them, that, at one period, every dredger who observed one of 

 their enemies, and did not tread on and kill it, or throw it 

 upon the shore, was made liable to some penalty. 



Having thus taken a general survey of the predatory rela- 

 tion in which other animals stand with the Mollusca, let me 

 now shew you the extent of their use in this view to man, 

 for availing himself very liberally of the licence, " every 

 moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you," he has 

 added very many of them to his long dietetical list. Of these 

 the principal, as you will at once guess, is the oyster, 

 " the food that feeds, the living luxury," as it is described by 

 a late poet of celebrity, though there are some who, like the 

 great Mr. Boyle, abhor the eating of them raw, and, with 

 another poet, are ready to exclaim, 



" That man had sure a palate cover'd o'er 

 With brass or steel, that, on the rocky shore, 

 First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat, 

 And risk'd the living morsel down his throat ! " f 



But, be that as it may, oysters are in general much esteemed, 

 and have, for many centuries, held an eminent place amongst 

 the delicacies of the table. The Romans, when luxury had 

 ousted the temperance of their earlier days, preferred them to 

 all others ; and ultimately proceeded to such gross extrava- 

 gance in their use, that the interference of the magistrate 

 was called forth, and penalties inflicted on such as were con- 

 victed of importing them from a distance, " Nee potest 

 videri satis dictum esse de his, cum palma mensarum divitum 

 attribuatur illis," are the words of Pliny. J They sometimes 



* Entom. Edin. 205. Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 623. 



t The language of Lentilius is similar : " Animal est aspectu et horridum 

 et nauseosum, sive id spectes in sua concha clausum, sive apertum, ut audax 

 fuisse credi queat, qui primum ea labris admovit." Ephemerid. Acad. Leo- 

 pold, cent. 8, 454. See also Seneca Epist. 95 and 108. 



" I had hoped," said Glaucus, in a melancholy tone, " to have procured 

 you some oysters from Britain ; but the winds that were so cruel to Csesar 

 have forbid us the oysters." 



