New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-04-20
something About Oysters.

Z Look at an oyster! In that soft and gelatinous
body lies whole world OF vitality and quiet enjoy
ment. Somebody has styled fosslferous rocks "monu
ments Of the felicity Of past ages An nd
sent. Dormant though the several creatures there
congregated seem each individual is leading the beau
tiful existence of an Epicurean god The world with
out, its and joys, its storms and calms lts pas
sions, evil and good-a are Indifferent to the unheed-
ing oyster. Unobservant even of what passes in its
immediate vicinity its whole soul is concentrated in
ITSELF yet not snggishly and alphabetically, for its
body is throbbing with life and enjoyment The
rolling waves watt fresh and schoicel food within its
reach, and the flow of the current feeds it without
an effort. Each atom of water that comes in contact
with its delicate gs evolves its imprisoned air to
freshen and nvgorate the creatures peliucd blood
Invisible to human eye, unless aided by the wonder
full inventions of human science, countless millions OF
vibrating ella are moving necessarily with synchronic
beat on every fibre of each fringing leatiet Well
might old Leeuwenhock exclaim, when he looked
through his microscope at the beard of shell fish.
"The motion saw in the small component parts of
it was so incredibly great that could not be satisfied
with the spectacle and it is not IN the mlnd or man
to conceive all the motions which behela within the
compass of a grain of sand" And yet the Dutch
naturalist unaided by the finer instruments of our
time, beheld but dim and misty indication OF the
exquisite ciliary apparatus by which these motions
are effected. How strange to reflect that all this
elaborate and nmitabe contrlvance has been devised
merely in the working members of the creature that
we find its wonders comprised. There are portions
of its frame which seem to serve no essential purpose
in its economy, which might be omitted without dis
turbng the course of its daily duties, and yet
slant in their presence and position that cannot
doubt their having had their places in the original
plan according to which the organization of the mol
usk was first put together. These are symbols of
organs to be developed in creatures higher in the
scale of antiques, it may be, of limbs, and
anticpations of undeveloped senses. These are the
first draughts of parts to BIZ made out in their details
elsewhere serving, however, an end by their pres
ence, for they badges of relationship and affinity
between one creature and another In them the oys-
tereater and the oyster may find some common bond
Of sympathy and cousinhood. Had the disputations
and needle-wtted schoolmen known Of these mystic
ries of vitality, how vainly subtle would have been
their speculatons concerning the solution of such
enigmas.
But the life of shellfsh is not one Of unvarying
rest. Observe the phases of individual oyster from
the moment its earliest embryolife, independent Of
maternal ties, to the consummation of its destiny
when the knife Of fate shall sever its muscular cords
and doom it to entombment in living sepulchre
How starts it forth into the world of waters Not
as unenlightened people believe in the shape of mi
mute, bvalved, protected, grave fixed and steady
oysterling No; it enters upon its career all life and
motion, fitting about in the sea as gay and lightly
as butterfly or swallow skins through the air. 1T
first appearance is as microscopic OysteI-cherub
with wing-like lobes fanking a mouth and shoulders
unencumbered with interior crural prolongations. Il
passes through joyous and vivacious iuvenility
skipping up and down as if in mockery of its heavy
and mmovable parents. 1t voages from oysterbet
to oysterbed, and if in luck so as to escape tn,
watchful voracity of the thousand enemies that lie il
wait or prow about to prey upon youth and inexpe
rence, at length having sown its wild oats, settle
down into steady, solid domestic oyster. 1t becomes
the parent Of fresh broods of oystercherubs and a
such it would live and die, leaving its SHE'LL thckenet
through old age, to serve as its monument throughou
all time, contribution towards the construction of
fresh geological epoch and new layer of the earth
crust, were it not for the guttony of man, who rend
ing this sober citizen of the sea from his native bed
carries him unresisting to busy cities and the hum o
crowds. II handsome, wellshaped and wehavoret
OYSTER he is introduced to the palaces of the rich ant
noble, like wit or philosopher or poet, to give ad
dtional relish to their sumptuous feasts if sturdy
thickbacked, strongtasted individual, fate consgns
him to the capacous tub of the street fishmonger
whence dosed with coarse black pepper and pungen
vinegar, embalmed partly after the fashion OF al
Egyptian king he is transferred to the hungry stom
ach of c0stermonger or becomes the luxurious repas
of a successful pickpocket. Westminster Review.