caused by the chemical changes in the organic tissues, when life is no longer 

 present to resist the ordained agency of decay and decomposition ; in fact it is a 

 slow combustion by combination with oxygen. Decayed wood is also some- 

 times luminous. On a railway in North Wales I discovered a wooden sleeper 

 which at night was highly phosphorescent. 



The presence of phosphorus in the lobster is of great importance to the con- 

 sumers of these sea luxuries : there is no substance which conveys phosphorus 

 so readily into the human system in an agreeable form, and which the system 

 so readily and quickly assimilates, as the flesh of crabs and lobsters. For this 

 reason lobsters, crabs, and oysters should form the diet of those engaged in 

 business or arduous literary pursuits, where there is much wear and tear of 

 the brain-powers, and where an extra supply of phosphorus is required for the 

 food of the brain. It is for this reason, I imagine, that lobsters and crabs are 

 generally eaten and most esteemed for supper. The brain towards night begins 

 to feel a little exhausted ; the lobster, crab, or oyster quickly supplies the 

 want, and the system immediately feels the effect. 



The structure and faculties of crabs and lobsters are very wonderful and 

 perfectly fitted by the Creator to the duties they have to perform. 



The mouth of the crab is very complicated. In the crab I find there are Mouth and 

 immediately under the eyes no less than six distinct pairs of moveable doors, stomacn of cra ^« 

 valves or lips ; some of these are subservient to the mouth, some to the breathing 

 organs ; all are worked by their own separate sets of muscles. Having dissected 

 away, one by one, these doors, which are highly complicated structures and 

 thickly covered at their margins with short stubby hairs, we finally arrive at 

 two very sharp teeth. In a crab measuring 8 inches across the back, the teeth 

 are nearly three quarters of an inch across ; they are very much the shape of a 

 human nail. Their external edge is sharp and chisel like, and on the interior 

 aspect of the teeth is found a hard projection of glass-like enamel ; these two 

 powerful teeth are set on a very beautiful hinge. When a crab shell is opened 

 two tendon-like bodies are perceived among the viscera. These tendon-like 

 bodies, resembling the "leaders" of a turkey's leg, are inserted into the 

 teeth so |as to work them with very great power. The teeth themselves are 

 fixed on to a framework of great strength and hardness. These teeth are 

 incisors not grinders. The tooth of a large crab when dissected out of the 

 body is nearly as large as the incisor of a calf, and much resembles it in 

 general contour. Place the two thumb nails together, imagine them to be teeth 

 working one against the other, and you will have a good model of a crab'.s 

 incisor-teeth. Immediately behind the teeth come the oesophagus, and the 

 stomach. This is composed of a framework between which a soft, highly 

 elastic membrane or stomach is spread, capable of containing much or 

 little food. In this stomach are seen three large teeth ; these are powerful 

 mill-stone grinders. The longest of these teeth are situate at the bottom of 

 the stomach. A tooth is situated one or either side. Their surfaces are 

 corrugated, much resembling the pattern we find in the tooth of an Indian 

 (not African) elephant. These teeth are worked by two strong wire-like 

 tendons, of which, in fact, they form the terminations, and are no doubt power- 

 ful masticating and crushing organs ; this is proved by the fact that the fish 

 bones found inside a crab's stomach are always very much comminuted. In 

 their digestive apparatus the Crustacea, which are all carnivorous, resemble the 

 predaceous insects in the shortness and simplicity of the alimentary canal. The 

 liver in the crab is highly developed. In a good dressed crab the liver or 

 " cream " forms the best part of the dish. 



The sense of smell is probably highly developed. The crab has not long Organs of smell 

 antennae like the lobster ; it has, however, two small horns near the angle of each in cral3, 

 eye, also two large horns in the middle of the forehead ; these are, I conclude, 

 somehow connected with the sense of taste and smell. That the faculty of smell 

 is probably highly developed may be inferred from their habits ; because, when 

 the pots are put down by the fishermen to catch them, they are known to come 

 to the pots for food, from a considerable distance round ; " The strongest 

 " smelling bait and the highest coloured has the preference. The white hound 

 " is preferred by fishermen because of its smell," one witness informed us. 

 This sense of smell may account for the fact that small fisheries are more 

 readily fished out than large fisheries. Moreover, crabs are scavengers, and 

 therefore the sense of smell is highly valuable to them. In terrestrial animals, 

 40353. O 



