The organ of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, O. [Ohio]) 1852-1853, 1852-07-23


TIE consumption of oysters IN London Il
enormous. During the season Of lo4514g
10000 bushels Of oysters were sold In oul
metropolis. A million and half OF these
shell fish are consumed during each season
in Edinburgh, being at the rate OF more
than 1900 a day. Filty-two millions were
taken from the French channel banks dur
ing the course of the year 1928 and now
the number annually dredged is probably
considerably greater, since the facilities OF
transport by rail greatly increase the inland
consumption of these as of other marine
luxures. French naturalists report, that
before an oyster is qualified to appear in
Paris, he must undergo course of educa-
! tion in discretion for the artificial oyster.
beds on the French coast, where the ami
mails are stored to be carried away as re-
quired, arc constructed between tide-marks;
and their denizens, accustomedlo pass the
greater part of the twenty-fOur hours be-
meath the water, open their valves and cape
when so situated, but close them firmly
when they are exposed by the recession of
the tide. Habituated to these Alterations
Of immersion and exposure, the practice of
opening and closing their valves at regular
intervals becomes natural to them, and
would be persisted in to their certain de-
structiou, on their arrival in Paris, were
they not ingeniously trained so as to avert
the evil. Each batch of oysters intended
to make the journey to the capital, is sub
jected to preliminary exercise in keeping
the shell closed at other hours than when
the tide is out ; until at length the she'll
fish have learned by experience that it is
necessary to do so whenever they are un-
covered by sea water. Thus they are ena-
bled to enter the metropolis of France as
polished oysters ought to do, not gaping
like astOunded rustics. A London oyster
man eau tell the age Of his flock TO a nicely
They are in perfection when from five to
seven years old. The age Of an oyster is
not to be found out by looking into its
i mouth II bears its years upon It's back
Everybody who has handled an oyster
shell must have observed that it seemed as
if composed of successive layers or plates
overlapping each other. These are techni-
cally termed Shoots aud each of them
marks years growth so that, by count
ing them, we can determine at glance the
year when the creature came into the world
Up to the epoch of its maturity, the shoots
are regular and successive but after that
time they become irregular, and are piled
one over the other, so that the shell be-
comes more and more thickened and bulky
Judging from the great thickness to which
some Oyster-shells have attained, this mol |
lusc is capable, if left to its natural changes |
and unmolested, Of attaining patriarchial
longevity. Among fossil oysters, speci-
mems are found occasionally of enormous
thickness al d the amount of time hat has
passed between the deposition of the bed of
rock in which such an example occurs, and
that which overlies it, might be calculated
from careful observation of the shape and
number of layers of calcareous matter com
posing an extinct Oyster-shell. In me
ancient formations, stratum above stratum
of extinguished oysters may be seen. each
bed consisting of full-grOwn and aged in
divlduals. Happy brOods these pre- Adam
ite congregations must have been, born in
an epoch when epicures were as yet un-
thought of, when neither Sweeting nor
Lynn had come into existence, and when
there were no workers in iron to fabricate
oyster ! Geology, and all its Won
ders, makes known to US scarcely one more
or inexplicable than the crea-
tion of oysters long before oyster eaters,
and the formation of oyster banks-ages
before dredgers What a lamentable heap
of good nourishment must have been wasted
during the primeval epochs When we
mediate upon this awful fact, can we be
surprised that bishops will not believe in 1
it, and, rather than assent to Che possibility
of so much good living having been ere
ated to no purpose, hold faith with Mattioli
and Fallopio, who maintained fossils to be
the lamentations of materia ping1is or
Mercati, who saw in them stones bewitched
by stars or 0livi, who described them as
the sports Of nature or DIR. Plot, who
derived them from latent plastic virtue p
Westminster ReuieI0, Jan. 1852.