232 • CONTEOVEESIES ABOUT OYSTER LIFE. 



coverings or gills are spread over the body to act as lungs, and 

 keep from the action of the water the air which the animal 

 requires for its existence. This covering is divided into lobes 

 with ciliated edges. Four leaves or membranous plates act as 

 capiUaiy funnels, open at the farthest extremities. '& Behind the 

 gills there is a large whitish fatty part enclosing the stomach 

 and intestines. The ' vessels of circulation play into muscular 

 cavities, which act the part of the heart. The stomach is 

 situated near the mouth. The oyster has no feet, but can move 

 by opening and closing its shell, and it secures food by means 

 of its beard, which acts as a kind of rake. In fact the internal 

 structure of the oyster, while it is excellently adapted to that 

 animal's mode of life, is exceedingly simple. 



It is not my purpose in the present work to enter into the 

 minutiae of oyster life. Indeed, there have been so many con- 

 troversies about the natural history of this animal as to render 

 it impossible to narrate in the brief space I can devote to it a 

 tenth part of what has been written or spoken about the life and 

 habits of the " breedy creature." Every stage of its growth has 

 been made the stand-poiut for a wrangle of some kind. As an 

 example of the keenness with which each stage of oyster life is 

 now being discussed, I may mention that some years ago a most 

 amusing squabble broke out in the pages of the Field newspaper 

 on an immaterial point of oyster life, which is worth noting here 

 as an example of what can be said on either side of a question. 

 The controversy hinged upon whether an oyster while on the 

 bed lay on the flat or convex side. Mr. Frank Buckland, who 

 originated the dispute, maintained that the right, proper, and 

 natural position of the oyster, when at the bottom of the sea, is 

 with the flat shell downwards ; but the natural position of the 

 oyster is of no practical importance whatever ; and I know, from 

 personal observation of the beds at Newhaven and Oockenzie, 

 that oysters lie both ways, — indeed, with a dozen or two of 

 dredges tearing over the beds it is impossible but that they 

 must lie quite higgledy-piggledy, so to speak. A great deal that 

 is incidentally interesting was brought up in the Field discussion. 

 There have been several other disputes about points in the 

 natural history of the oysters — one in particular as to whether 

 that animal is provided with organs of vision. Various opinions 

 have been enunciated as to whether an oyster has eyes, and one 

 author asserts that it has so many as twenty-four, which again 

 is denied, and the assertion made that the so-called eyes project- 



