The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-02-07
THE FESTIVE OYSTER.
A Natural History Of tho Popular BIvalve.


Rev. DR.. ]. G. Morris lectured on "The
Natural History of the Oyster" at the
Second English Lutheran Church on
Thursday night, before large audience.
The subject had been chosen for him,
but there could not be a more luscious
aud juicy one, nor one more full of in
terest. A great deal has been said, writ
ten and practiced about it-there was
indeed o vast oyster practice in Balti-
more every day-but most people know
little of the life and habits of the oyster.
1t was out of the way of ordinary lecture
subjects OF the present day, most of
which are as dry as "punk." There were
curious and laughable things about an
oyster, but there was much more than
that in the subject. There was its i'm
mense financial importance in mercan-
tile view. Thousands of men, women
and children were given employment
here in the oyster trade who would 9TH
erwise have no work in the winter sea-
son. There were S4,0O0,O00 invested in
it in New York City, and probably
great deal more than that in the city of
Baltimore and Maryland.
The oyster was we'll known to the an.
clients thousands of years ago, though it
is not mentioned in the Bible, unless un-
der the general class of she'll fish and
molusks, but the profane writers are loud
in their praises. No dinner could be
complete without oysters. Here in Ma
ryland there is full evidence of their an
tiquity. Vast beds of shells ten feet
thick are found at great distances from
the shores of the bay, showing that the
inhabitants in old times had carried the
bivalves away to feast on them. The
heaps were now covered with other soil.
It is net known who was the first man
to eat an oyster, but be was very brave
man to put such a looking animal in his
mouth and swallow it, without knowing
whether it was good to eat or not. Ira.
dition has it, that long and long ago, a
man walking by the bay shore, saw
curious, ugly object, half covered in the
weeds. He gave it kick, when the
oyster opened its mouth, and hesaw the
white pearly object within. The man
pried curiously at it, and put finger in
the shell, which was instantly clamped
down. Jerking out his finger, he placed
it in his mouth to cease the pain. Get
ting a taste of the juice, he found it
good, and, breaking open the shell he
ate the whole oyster. This discoverer
told his friends, and oysters quickly be.
came known as delicacies.
Everybody eats oysters. To Al few the
taste is not natural, but the appetite is
soon trained, and these become che great
est eaters of them. Men Of old days ate
oysters all day long, and it was true now
that men could eat Just as many raw ones
as they could find room for the capacity
of-well, call it what you choose. Cook
ed oysters would surfeit. The raw oyster
was so easily digestible, because it was
firstly composed Of seven-eighths water,
slightly gelatinized, and small quantity
of nutritive matter; secondly, its liver,
the black part of the oyster, was larger
in proportion in man, and secreted q
great deal of bile. N-.-.s, with the fluids
of the stomach, make two factors of di-
gestion, and the oyster partly digests it.
self.
The oyster is one of the few animals
eaten alive, for it is not exactly dead
when swallowed, unless you cut it in
pieces first. Its natural history commen-
ces with the shell, which is no part of
the animal at all, but only a house. 1t
is composed of carbonate of lime. The
two black marks on the inside are where
the adstrictor muscle adhered to it. This
muscle is called the heart, but is not the
heart at all. 1t keeps the shell shut, and
when it relaxes the she'll opens of itself
from the pressure of the animal inside.
The oyster matches its egg inside the
she'll, and there is no male or female sex,
every oyster being capable of producing
young. One oyster will produce about
100000 young at time. They ale
about the size Of pin-head, and float
around until a small tentacle, with which
they are provided, adheres to some sub
stance under the water. There the oys-
ter lives and dies, for it has no power of
locomotion at all.-Bahimore Sun.