184 THE BEARD NOT POISONOUS. 



Myiilus edulis, ' Eh, Willie dear, dinna ye eat that. 

 Dirma eat the beard or ye'll dee !' Many years ago 

 I remember a remark to the same purport as the 

 above being made by a poor child to its playmate, 

 in the neighbourhood of Gravesend. 



I little thought at that time that the Mussel 

 was so interesting a shell-fish, or that I years after 

 should spend many an anxious hour studying the 

 formation and nature of its despised beard. 



I need hardly state that the idea of the beard 

 being poisonous is a vulgar error. In general the 

 fish may be eaten entire with impunity. 



Cases have occurred where persons have been taken 

 ill after eating it, but this result has been satisfac- 

 torily explained to have been caused by the Mussels 

 being procured from places such as Leith Docks, 

 where their food consisted chiefly of unwholesome 

 and putrescent matters. 



This mollusc is not used as food to any very great 

 extent by the poorer classes. It is employed very 

 extensively, however, by the fishermen as bait along 

 all parts of the British coast. But in France it is 

 much esteemed both by rich and poor. The trade in 

 them is successfully cultivated, and affords a means 

 of support to hundreds of industrious and deserving 

 men. 



From the learned author of the " Rambles of a 

 Naturalist" we learn that at the village of Esnandes, 

 on the coast of France, the Mussel trade, commenced 



