2918 Notices of New Books. 



scientific or fashionable pursuit, as the manufacture of tortoiseshell 

 combs with the culinary achievements of the London Tavern. Next 

 to the author's very candid and truthful avowal which I have cited 

 above, the best evidence of my assertion will be found in the headings 

 of his chapters : after the first, which is merely introductory, the sub- 

 jects discussed follow in this succession. 



" The hurtful Mollusca, the Teredo, the Slugs and Snails, Mon- 

 strous Cephalopods, the Aplysia or sea hare, poisonous Mollusca, the 

 Mussel, Oyster, Edible Mollusca, dependence of animals on each 

 other, Mollusca food to quadrupeds, to birds, to fishes, Mollusca used 

 for baits, food to insects, food to man, the Oyster, the British Oyster 

 Fishery, the French Fishery, Oysters, the Mussel and Cockle, other 

 Edible Bivalves, Periwinkles and Whelks, Mollusca, their use with 

 savage nations, Edible Cephalopods, &c." 



The author, under these various heads, brings together a vast 

 amount of agreeable matter, which exhibits the result of extensive and 

 diversified reading, but he certainly loses sight altogether of the title 

 he has selected, and mentions Conchology and shells only inciden- 

 tally. The work is in fact an introduction to the Natural History of 

 Mollusca, more especially with reference to their economy and phy- 

 siology, as his second or explanatory title sets forth. 



Under the head " poisonous Mollusca" we find the following agree- 

 ably compiled passage : 



" There are some less doubtful poisonous Mollusca. Delle Chiaie 

 mentions it as a fact, that the fresh-water mussel and oyster become 

 poisonous in summer, on which account their sale is prohibited 

 during that season in all southern Europe ; and we, in the north, are 

 as effectually restrained from their use, by a popular tradition of their 

 unwholesomeness in the months that have no R in their names. It 

 seems certain also that oysters, in general wholesome and easy of 

 digestion, do occasionally become noxious when in season, as was 

 partially observed in Holland during the year 1821. Lentilius 

 mentions, that when he was at the Hague, in 1713, a certain ambas- 

 sador gave a luxurious supper to some of both sexes of his own rank, 

 and that no delicacy might be wanting, oysters of a green colour were 

 procured from England. All who eat of these were immediately 

 seized with severe colics, and were with difficulty cured. It was 

 afterwards ascertained, says Lentilius, that the merchant, whom he 

 anathematises with his whole race, had pawned upon the ambassador 

 some common oysters, tinted with copper, for the true greens. In the 

 West Indies some suspicion is attached to those oysters which adhere 



