OSTREAD/E. 
333 
England lias always been famous for its oysters, and its pearls are said 
to We been the chief incentive to Caesar’s invasion. It is not, there- 
in to be supposed that British magnates could be indifferent to the 
Native.” But the bivalve has perhaps been more celebrated, in prose 
and verse, north of the Tweed than south, where silent enjoyment is 
^ore relished than noisy demonstration. Dngald Stewart, Ilume, 
^'fflen, and other Scotch philosophers of the List centuries, had their 
°yster ploys” as an accompaniment to their “high jinks, in the 
Tiaint and dingy taverns of the old town of Edinburgh ; and what the 
ivalve has been to modern celebrities let the Nodes A,inbvo$MnBS tell. 
The oyster may thus be said to be the palm and glory of the table. 
1 ri considered the very perfection ol digestive aliment. From fetock- 
h °lm to Naples, from London to St. Petersburg, it is always in re- 
Tiest. At, St. Petersburg they cost a rouble (nearly one shilling), and 
!lt Stockholm fivepence each. For the last year or two the English 
Whitryon must pay from two shillings to half a crown a dozen for 
c ^oice natives. 
Eor his daily nourishment a man of middle size requires a quantity 
1 food equal to twelve ounces of dry azotic substance. According to 
tllis calculation, it would be necessary to swallow sixteen dozen of 
°Mers to make up the necessary quantity. The small proportion of 
"ffritiye matter explains the extreme digestibility of the oystei. It 
explains the immense consumption of them attributed to the 
Emperor Yitellius. The oyster is nothing more than water slightly 
Platinized. Without this Yitellius, all emperor and master of the 
j ?0l 'ld as he was, never could have absorbed twelve hundred oysters 
y Way of whetting his appetite. 
The gourmets were long of opinion that the quadrangular pad or 
( Addon in the bivalve was the most savoury and exciting part. 
er lain distinguished amateur performers adopted and proclaimed 
* le principle of dividing transversely the body of the mollusc, and 
gating the cushion only. Natural history explains this gastronr mical 
Wovery. It recognises the fact that the bile secreted by the liver is 
c °fitained in this substance, that it accelerates while it exhausts the 
Wlitative surface of the tongue and palate, aiding also the functions 
Eh© stomach. 
have described the organization of the oyster, and we have said 
