News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-03-20
AN OYSTER STUDY.
IT'S MOUTH, HEART, LIVER BLOOD
VESSELS, ETC.
Looking into BivalvuIar AnatOmy-How an
Oyster Feeds and Maintains Irseif.

Oyster Feeds and Maintains Itself.
Every oyster has a mouth. heart,
a liver, a stomach, cunningly devised in
testines. and other necessary organs,
just as all living, moving, intelligent
creatures have. And all these things
are covered from mems rudely inquisi-
tive gaze by mantle OF pearly gauze,
whose wool and warp put to shame the
frost lace on your windows IN winter.
The mouth is at the smaller end of the
oyster, adjoining the hinge. It Is OF oval
shape. and, though not readily seen by
an inexperienced eye, its loeat-e>% sna
size can be easily discovered by gently
pushing a blunt bodkin or similar lnstIu-
ment along the surface mentioned.
When the spot is found, your bodkln can
be thrust between the delicate lips and a
considerable distance down toward the
stomach without causing the oyster to
veil with pain. From this mouth Is, of
course, a sort of canal to convey the food
70 the stomach, whence it passes into
the intestines. With an exceedingly
delicate and sharp knife you can take off
the "mantle" of the oyster, when there
will he disclosed to you q half-moon-
shaped space just above the muscle, or
so-called " heart" This space is the
oysters pericardium, and within it is
the real heart, the pulsations OF which
are readily seen. The heart is made aH
of two parts, just as the human heart is,
one of which receives the blood from
the gills through network OF blood
vessels, and the other drives the blood
out through arteries. In this important
matter the oyster differs i'll no respect
from other warm or cold-blooded ami
mails. And no one need laugh incredu-
lously at the assertion that oysters have
blood. 1t is not ruddy, according to the
accented notion about blood, but it is
nevertheless blood to all oyster intents
and purposes. In the same vicinity,
and in marvelously proper posi-
tions. will be found all the other
organs named. But it is very proper to
be incredulous about that mouth and or
gans. At first glance it would seem that
they are utterly useless, for the mouth
cannot snap around for food, and the
oyster has no arms wherewith to grab
its dinner or lunch. True, apparently,
but only apparently, for each oyster has
more than Thousand arms-tiny, deli
cate, almost invisible. And each one Of
them is necessarily at work gathering
up food and gently pushing it INTO the
lazy mouth of the indolent, comfortable
creature. The gills are the thin flaps
so notably perceptible around the front
face part of the undressed oyster, below
the ntnscle. Each or these glfs S coy
cred with minute, hair-hke arms, very
close together, and perpetually in mo-
ton, to and fro, in the same direction.
They catch food from the water. strain
it carefully of improper substances, and
watt it upward over the mantle's smooth
surface to the gaping mouth, which
placidly gobbles it up until hunger is
appeased and then the body goes to
sleep without turning over. Any one
can observe this singular process of
feeding by placing a minute quantity of
some harmless coloring matter on the
gills. If it will not offend the oysters
delicate palate the coloring matter will
be seen at once propelled by invisible
hands toward the mouth and thence
slowly down into the stomach. And
this is all know about oyster anatomy,
except that the liver almost entirely sur
rounds the stomach, and is of dark
green color. It may be new to many to
know that oysters are horn precisely the
same way the shad and other fish come
into the world. A well-educated lady
oyster will lay about 125, 600, 900 eggs
SO it is said l have not counted enough
of them to strike such large average
and every one of these eggs will ulti-
mately become fit for a stew or fry if
they escape the multitude of periIs that