THE OYSTERS AND OYSTER-BEDS OF FLORIDA. 
By JOHN G. RUGE. 
To treat this subject properly one should be prepared to consider it in all its 
aspects, relatively and otherwise. I do not offer you anything new, and I even confess 
plagiarism, yet hope it is so shaped as to engage your attention. 
I may observe that oysters of many species are found nearly all over the world: 
the British Isles, the Mediterranean, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, 
and part of Russia, Australia, China; nearly all parts of the eastern coast of America 
from Canada to Cape Horn; also the northwest coast of the American continent. 
Oysters are plentiful in the Hawaiian Islands, and are quite numerous, at least as to 
variety, on the Asiatic shores. Efforts made to acclimatize the oysters of the Atlantic 
coast in California waters have been only partially successful. 
The oyster no doubt furnished a large part of the food of man while in the primi- 
tive era of cave-dwellers, and we have evidence, not only in history but in our own day 
and generation, that it is sought for food both by savage and civilized man, as well as 
by the fishes of the sea; even the quadruped animals find it a toothsome morsel. You 
can prove this at your doors near Tampa Bay, where “coon” oysters grow plentifully, 
even upon trees and bushes. They derive their name, perhaps, from a fancied resem- 
blance to the tongue of the raccoon, as well as from the habit these quadrupeds have of 
seeking oysters when the tide is out, cracking the shells and eating the oysters almost 
as the squirrel does nuts. I have often chased them from the oyster bars. 
Plato, some 400 years before the Christian era, regarded the oyster as the typical 
know-nothing of creation, and he judicially consigned the soul of the ignorant man 
at death to the occupancy of the oyster. Oysters are unquestionably among the 
oldest of foods of mankind. Going back into history, we find that they are written 
of by the ancients as of prime importance in their accounts of feasts of the wealthier 
Romans, where they figured prominently in the lavish luxury of imperial Rome. 
Over 1900 years ago one Sergius Orata turned Lake Avernus, in Italy, into an oyster- 
bed. Sallust, before the Christian era, some 2,000 years ago, seems to have thought 
the oyster the only good thing that Britons had. Pliny, who died in the year 79 
A. D., gives an account of the use of oysters, aud mentions that iE sop’s son was fond 
of them. Juvenal, A. D. 60, speaks of the British oyster, which was then in high 
repute among the luxuries of that day. The oyster has honorable mention in classic 
song and story and is a favorite theme for naturalists, but is not mentioned in the 
Bible. A physician, Dr. Baster, as quoted by Dr. Johnson, was of the opinion that 
the Roman predilection for oysters was a sanitary one, and he says: 
Living oysters are endowed with the property of medicinal virtues. They nourish wonderfully 
and solicit rest; for he who sups on oysters is wont on that night to sleep placidly. As to the 
valetudinarian afflicted with a weak stomach, oppressed with phlegm or bile, raw oysters are more 
healing than any drug or mixture that the apothecary can compound. 
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