382 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



part. Certain distinguished amateur performers adopted and pro- 

 claimed the principle of dividing transversely the body oi the mollusc, 

 and eating the cushion only. Natural history explains this gastro- 

 nomical discovery. It recognises 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 organisation 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 make out a case for them. 



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 villanous green 

 matter, which presently pervades their breathing apparatus, impreg- 

 nating, 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 scarcely thrown 

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

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

 great knife he brutally opens the shell, cuts through the muscle by 

 which it adheres to the valve, and violently detaches it, after breaking 

 the hinges. It is now laid out on a plate, exposed to every current 

 of air, and in this state of suffering it is carried to the table. There 

 the pitiless gourmet powders it over with the most pungent pepper, 

 squeezes over the wounded and still bleeding body the abomination 

 of its race in the shape of citric acid or vinegar, and then, alas ! with 

 a silver knife which cannot cut, he wounds and bruises it a second 

 time ; or, worse still, he saws and tears and rends it from its remaining 

 shell ; he seizes it with a three-pronged fork, which is driven through 



