The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-02-06
THE IUscxoUs oYsr1R.
SArunAI HIsronr or rus POPULAR nIvALvn

NATURAL HISTORY or THE POPULAR nrvALvE.
Rev. DR.. J. G. Morris lectured on i Tho
Natirat History Of the Oyster at the second
: English Luthern Church, Baltimore, recently,
before large audience. The subject had
been chosen FOR him, but there Gould not be 4
more luscious and juicy one. nor one nofs
full Of interest. A great deal Ind been said,
written and practicod about Il there was III.
deed vast oyster practice hi Baltimore every
day but most people know little OF the life
aud habits Of the oyster. II was out 81 The
way of ordinary lecture subjects Of the PRES
: ent day. most Of which were as airy as .punlx
There were curious and laughable things
| about an oyster, but there was much more
J than that in the subject. There was its i'm
menss financial importance in mercantile
2 viaw. Thousands of men. women and chill
diem were given employment here in tile oy-
ster trade who would otherwise have no worI.
in the Winter season. There were 81, 900, 900
invested in itin New York city, aud probably
a great deal more than that in Maryland.
The oyster was well known to The ancieiits
thousands of years ago. though il IS hot men.
toned in the Bible, unless under the general
classes of she'll fish and mnllusks, butt pro.
fame writer's are loud in their praises. No ,iiu-
ner could be complete without oysters. Here
in Maryland there is full evidence of their an.
4 tiquity. Vast beds of shells ten feet thick
are found at great distances from the shores
of the bay, showing that the inhabitants In
the old times had carried the bivalves away to
feast on them. The heaps were now covered
with other soil ut
tits not known who was the first man to
eat an oyster, but he must have been very
brave man to put such a looking animal in his
moutliand swallow il without knowing whetll-
sr IT was good to eat or not. Tradition has IL
that long and long ago man walking by The
bay shore saw curious, ugly object, half
covered with weeds. He gave it a kick. when
the oyster opened its mouth and he saw the
white pearly object within. The man pried
curiously at il and put finger in the shell,
which was instantly clamped down. jerking
, out his finger, he placed 1t in his mouth to
t ease the pain. Gettinga taste OF the juice,
! he found 1t good, and, breaking open the
shell, he ate the whole oyster. This dscov-
erer told his friends, and oysters quickly be-
, came known as delicacies.
: Everybody eats oysters. To few the taste
is not natural, bat the appetite is soon train
ed, and these become the greatest eaters of
: it. Men of old days ate oysters all day long,
f and it was true now that men could eat Just
as many raw ones as they could find room for
in the capacity Orwell call il what you
0 choose. Cooked oy,ster. s-onJs sssf..if.. 7'le
raw oyster was so easily digestib,e, because IL
was firstly composed of seven-eights water
! slightly gelatinized aud a small quantity Of
nutritive matter secondly, its liver, the black
part of the oyster, was larger in proportion
! than III man, aud seersted great deal of bile.
This, with the fluids of the stomach, make
, two factors of digestion, aud the oyster part
, ly ligests itself.
The oyster is one af the few aniinafs eaten
alive for it is not exactly killed when swal-
, lowed, unless you cut it in pieces first. It's
natural history commences with the shell,
which is no part of the animal at all, but on
ly house. 1t is composed of carbonate of
lime. The two black marks inside are where
tho adstrictor muscle adhered to it. This
muscle IL called the heart, but it Is not the
heart at ALL 1t keeps the she'll shut, and when
5 1t relaxes tbs shell opens of itself from the
: pressure of the animal inside. The oyster
matches it's eggs inside the she'll, and there is
no male or female sex, every oyster being ca
pable of producing young. One oyster will
produce about two million young at a time.---
They are about the size of pinhead, and
} flat around Until small tcntacle, with which
they are provided, adheres to some substance
under tbs water There the oyster lives and
dies, for ii has no power of looomotion ut all
Al three years old they are edible, but arc
: better at four years and over. Inside this body
is covered with thin white MANTLE This
has the power to assilni,ate carbonate of limo
from the water, which IL deposits in lay
ers forming the she'll. Tbs lecturer gave an
interesting account OF the inner structure OF
the oyster, and OF its manner OF taking food
which consists Of the smallest animalcule.---
Pearls are gravel or some foreign substance
which has gotten into the shell and were COW
cred by the animal with calcareous matter.
The oyster has lungs, heart, liver, blood,
which is white, not rcd, nerves aud stomach.
but no brain and no eyes. Its enemies were,
after man, the borer, the drum-fish and the
, star fish. These destroy great numbers. Ii
allowed to produce unmoested they would
soon fill the Chesapeake bay and drive all the
water out. The manner OF taking oysters,
both by dredges and tongs, was described
The oyster crab was not a baby crab but a
distinct animal. He did not believe that oys.
tiers were capable of feeling pain. They had
no voice and made no fuss, though they often
got into broils and stews. No doubt of that.
Baltimore Sun. sfp S.
---sos----~~p II s4sf
Cooke refused to get his wife new hat for
Easter, and soon after their little girl came 10
and said, Mamma, won't you buy me a
monkey, to play with, when you go down
I town ?'' "No, darling wait till you are old