The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-14
WHAT THE OYSTER EATS.
QUEER FOOD THE LUSCIOUS 81
VALVE FEEDS UPON.
Everything is Fish That Comes to Els
Net, and He Lets Nothing Go by Him
sis Bill of Fare Has some High
Sounding Titles

Sounding Titles.
From the PaiI1delDhiG Inquirer.
'sDo you know what the food Of an oyster
is-the gentle. yielding, accomplishing,
acephaIous mollusk. who has suffered more
evictions than any known race or tribe or
species since the world began|
The microscopic had lifted his bent head
from over his b.nocular and wiped his eyes
with a silk handkerchief to ease the pain
consequent upon the continued strain ais
eyes had been subjected to while looking
through his instrument with the strongest
glasses science has thus far furnished. To
his question a wondering negative was
given. and the microscopic smiled blandly,
and not with the self-suflicient air Of one
al-and- would be-pleased- to-
impart- his-information.
"The innocent-looking oyster, which from
the time Of Aristotle and Linneus aud Lu-
cullus TO that of Brillat-Savarin, has held
the highest place in the gustatory fleld-the
| oyster which is to-day the chef d'BuUre of
| the church stew the entree to the big ban
| quet TO high dIgniUaries and statesmeR-the
| oyster, whlcA, speaking in an all-round
sense is in everybody mouth now that the
| season is upon US when there is nary lack of
L an II Interfere Win Ju6 iuoUI Oh LUB
shelly delicacy-the oyster. / repeat, in his
| small way, is a marine hog, cannibal,
voracious, grasping. everyday hungry beg
| gar, whose appetite is as Unsuitable IS that of
man for him, and that's the oyster"
And the microscopic paused to get
breath, and new expletive adjectives to
| apply to the animal that hasn't backbone
enough to hit back.
Yes. sir; the oyster is omnivorous.
gramnivorous. carnivorous, but mona the
less delightful because of his pickerellike
appetite. just look through the microscope
aud tell me what it looks like
| To the naked eye the object looked like a
drop of brownish-colored liquid, but under
the great magni6er it presented wonder
| full appearance.
at looks like the hack yard of a New
York tenement house." was the reply to
the scientists question.
EXACTLY. Yet that is the food of the
| oyster. There is everything to be found in
the stomach of this bivalve-inorganic a
we'll as organic life; the lowest form of
animal and plant life dirt sea deposits-in
fact, the most incongruous collection of
things imaginable. That is drop of the
food found in the stomach of an oyster just
| twenty-four hours out of water.
Talk about the hog tahooed by
| Deuteronomy. why he's the cleanest
animal in the world compared to the
oyster 50 far as what enters into the
| stomachs of both is concerned That net
like concern in the center is a specimen of
the Crypto-Raphidiee while below 1t is a
partially digeSted Rotifer, a crustacean.
There is also a number of other crusteceous
tribes, grasses and animalculse Of the lowest
form Of life known either in the animal or
vegetable kingdom, on which the oyster
feeds, the names of which are simply par
alyzing to the average layman, but upon
which the oyster seems to grow fat"
Then the microscopic paused and going
to a handsome carved cabinet brought out
some plates of photo-microscopy, showing
the food found in the stomach of an oyster.
These plates, he explained, are from exami-
nations by Bashford Dead A. B., who fur
nished them 20 the New York fish commits
sion.
Then the microscopic gave an interesting
sketch of the food of an oyster as SHOWN by
the accompanying plates.
According to Prof. Ryder, the eminent
authority on oysters and their ways" con-
tinued the scientist, "the oyster lives en-.
tirely on mi croscopic beings and fragment
of organic matter, which are carried by
currents from the palps and gills to tue
large mouth of the animal at the hinge END
of the shell. The inside of the gulet and
stomach, like some other parts of the body
} is covered with ella, so that food once fairly
in the mouth will be carried by their owl
action down to the cavity of the stomach
where it is carried into the folds and deeI
pouches in its walls, and even into the
/. openings of the bile ducts to undergo diges
= ton or solution, SO as to be fitted in it
passage through the intestine to be takel
into the circulation, and finally disposed o
in building up the structures of the body.
"Now, along with the food which i.
> taken a very lerge amount of indigestibl
dirt, or inorganic matter, is carried in
/ xAhf nh IN 10 ha II,
q testines, together with the refuse or vast
a from the body. When this matter is ex
amined you find the oyster exists largel,
4 on diatoms What is a diatoms 1t is
a low type of moving plant which swims il
!. the water incased il minute sandston,
>. cases or boxes Of the most delicate beauty
+ of workmanship. These, when found i
the stomach, have had their living content
entirely dissolved out by the action of tn
c digestive juices of tho stomach There ar,
genera of diatoms, compylodiscus, concinc
g discus and navicula, the first being
4 singularly bent form, the second discordial
n and the last boat shaped. All are beauti
! fully marked.
r ''Then Mr.. Oyster has as a variety of hi
o food sort OF mid-week dinner. The spore
Is of alg@, the larvae or young of many ami
- mails, such as sponges, brYoZoa hydroids
II worms aud-aud here is where this unobtru
"a sive gentleman of the world shows his Low
q for his species, In a cannlballStlc manner,
, is true-mollusks that are small enough t
J. be taken in as aliment by the oyster, thong
!. their bodies being soft aud having no skals
r e-sIs no traces sre tSuso, sssS II 10 denos
n Seratel that such is the case by the presenc
l. of these food products in such stagnan
waters as may be found at the heads of tn
small O eeks or inlets along the Chesapeake
where the water is but little affected by til
tides. There always appears to be there
:. relatively greater development of a some
what characteristic surface or shallow waite
fauna of minute forms.
4 "Some of the results of nicroscopical il
vestgation into the contents of the stomac
:. of an oyster are intensely surprising" con
II tinued the scientist, thoughtfully. ''Liv
l. crustaceans have been found twenty fou
in hours after the capture of the oyster, Will
10 some are varieties of diatoms and desmid
J. which are egardel as totally of fresh water
is OF the latter-the desmids-it has bee
: known that three forms Of the gener
= -cosnldriunl, microSteriGs aud cJosteriui
% and their presence has been accounted TO
O. on the ground that fresh water spring
mixed with the fluid native to the oyster
n and in which he was found.
St "Among the animals that the oysters cal
h nivorous tendency impels him to absorb ar
D. rotifers. two varieties, fresh and marine
- CrllStaceauS q number of varieties incud