THE OYSTERS AND OYSTER-BEDS OF FLORIDA. 



By JOHN G. RUGE. 



To treat this subject properly one should be prepared to consider it in all its 

 aspects, relatively aiid otherwise. I do not offer you anything new, and I even confess 

 plagiarism, yet hope it is so shaped as to engage your attention. 



I may observe that oysters of many species are found nearly all over the world: 

 the British Isles, the Mediterranean, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, 

 and part of Russia, Australia, China; nearly all parts of the eastern coast of America 

 from Canada to Cape Horn; also the northwest coast of the American continent. 

 Oysters are plentiful in the Hawaiian Islands, and are quite numerous, at least as to 

 variety, on the Asiatic shores. Efforts made to acclimatize the oysters of the Atlantic 

 coast in California waters have been only partially successful. 



The oyster no doubt furnished a large part of the food of man while in the primi- 

 tive era of cave-dwellers, and we have evidence, not only in history but in our own day 

 and generation, that it is sought for food both by savage and civilized man, as well as 

 by the fishes of the sea; even the quadruped animals find it a toothsome morsel. You 

 can prove this at your doors near Tampa Bay, where "coon" oysters grow plentifully, 

 even upon trees and bushes. They derive their name, perhaps, from a fancied resem- 

 blance to the tongue of the raccoon, as well as from the habit these quadrupeds have of 

 seeking oysters when the tide is out, cracking the shells and eating the oysters almost 

 as the squirrel does nuts. I have often chased them from the oyster bars. 



Plato, some 400 years before the Christian era, regarded the oyster as the typical 

 know-nothing of creation, and he judicially consigned the soul of the ignorant man 

 at death to the occupancy of the oyster. Oysters are unquestionably among the 

 oldest of foods of mankind. Going back into history, we find that they are written 

 of by the ancients as of prime importance in their accounts of feasts of the wealthier 

 Itomans, where they figured prominently in the lavish luxury of imperial Eome. 

 Over 1900 years ago one Sergius Orata turned Lake Avernus, in Italy, into an oyster- 

 bed. Sallust, before the Christian era, some 2,000 years ago, seems to have thought 

 the oyster the only good thing that Britons had. Pliny, who died in the year 79 

 A. D., gives an account of the use of oysters, and mentions that ^Esop's sou was fond 

 of them. Juvenal, A. D. 60, speaks of the British oyster, which was then in high 

 repute among the luxuries of that day. The oyster has honorable mention in classic 

 song and story and is a favorite theme for naturalists, but is not mentioned in the 

 Bible. A physician, Dr. Baster, as quoted by Dr. Johnson, was of the opinion that 

 the Eoman predilection for oysters was a sanitary one, and he says: 



Living oysters are endowed with the property of medicinal virtues. They nourish wonderfully 

 and solicit rest; for he who sups on oysters is wont on that night to sleep placidly. As to the 

 valetudinarian afflicted with a weak stomach, oppressed with phlegm or bile, raw oysters are more 

 healing than any drug or mixture that the apothecary can compound. 



289 

 F. 0. B. 189713 



