Indirect and Direct Benefits. 44 
ticular, they act more beneficially than quicklime. * And in 
China, India, Ceylon, and Africa, where there is no stone 
fitted for burning into lime, and where shells are abundant, 
these are resorted to, and the lime procured from them is said 
to be peculiarly white and pure +: so much so, that the people, 
and even the ladies in India, to increase the pungency, mix it 
with their betel leaf and areka nut, which they chew as our 
sailors do tobacco. ¢ 
I now proceed to illustrate the modes in which molluscous 
animals contribute more directly to our wants and luxuries ; 
and I shall occupy the remainder of this letter with an account 
of such of them as man has added to his long dietetical list, 
for liberally has he availed himself of the license, 66 every 
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” ‘The princi- 
pal of ehéser is the oyster, “ the food that feeds, the living 
luxury,” as it is described by a living poet of celebrity, though 
there are some who, like the ereat Mr. Boyle, abhor the eat- 
ing 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 ! \?? 
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. * Nec potest videri satisdictum esse de his, cum 
palma mensarum divitum attribuatur illis,” are the words of 
Pliny.§ They sometimes brought them so far as from Bri- 
tain; but those most celebrated for their sweetness and tender- 
ness were from Cyzicus, a town of Mysia, situate in a cogno- 
minal island of the Propontis. You will also remember that 
those which came from the Lucrine Lake and from Brundusium 
had no vulgar fame, being occasionally adverted to by their 
poets and satirists. It was even a grave matter of dispute to 
which of these the preference was due ; ; and to settle the point, 
or with a view, perhaps, of combining the good qualities of 
both, oysters were wont to be carried from Brundusium, and 
fed for a time in the Lucrine Lake. 
* Thomson’s Hist. of the Royal Society, p. 65. 
+ “ At Columbo, in Ceylon, the Dutch had the walls of their houses all 
plastered over and whitewashed with a very fine bright lime, made of burnt 
shells. The colour is beautifully white, and may contribute to the coolness 
of the houses, but throws an unsupportable glare in the eyes of the passenger 
along the streets.” (Percival’s Ceylon, p. 126.) 
t “See the Travéls of Staunton, Buchanan, and Barrow. 
§ Hist. Nat., lib. xxxii. cap 6. 
