Oyster shell

“ Modern observations have modified the ideas of former naturalists upon this point. In order to obtain possession of and swallow an oyster, it appears that the star-fish begins its approaches by bringing its mouth to the closed edges of the oyster-shell; this done, with the assistance of a particular liquid which its mouth secretes, it injects a few drops of an acrid or venomous liquid into the interior of the oyster-shell, which forces it to open its valves. An entrance once obtained, it is not long before it is invaded and ravaged. ”

“ And then the tide sweeps 'em in and out, so I reckon they get scattered pretty much everywhere in the neighborhood of the oyster-beds."
"But how do they grow fast to old shells and other oysters if they have no shells themselves?"
"Oh! They get shells quick enough. And as soon as they do, they sink to the bottom and fasten themselves to the first clean rock or shell they come to. If they don't hit a rock or shell, they sink in the mud and die. Of course, there ain't no rocks on our mud bottom, and that's why we have to put shells on the beds. ”

“ Among fossil oysters, specimens are found occasionally of enormous thickness; and the amount of time that has passed between the deposition of the bed of rock in which such an example occurs, and that which overlies it, might be calculated from careful observation of the shape and number of layers of calcareous matter composing an extinct oyster-shell. In some ancient formations, stratum above stratum of extinguished oysters may be seen, each bed consisting of full-grown and aged individuals. ”

“ Besides these young oysters, the liquor contains a variety of animalcules." Indeed, with the aid of a microscope one million of young have been discovered in a single oyster. Guarded by their two tender shells, these swim freely in the sea when ejected by the parent oyster, until, by means of a glutinous substance, they fix themselves so fast to some object that they can be separated only by force. These young are very soon able to produce others, many say at four months after their birth. When the oyster attains the size of a crown the shell is still very tender and thin ”

“ The shell-fish known as the oyster drill is one of the greatest of all enemies to young oysters, which he destroys by boring minute holes through their shells, and when the oyster opens, after death, eating him up. ”

“ The oyster contains a tough muscle, by which it is attached to the shell; the body is made up largely of the liver (which contains glycogen, animal starch) , and is partially surrounded by fluted layers, which are the gills. Natural oyster beds (or banks) are found in shallow salt water having stony bottom, along the entire Atlantic Coast. The oyster industry of the world is chiefly in the United States and France, and on account of its increase many artificial beds have been prepared for oyster culture. Oysters are five years old before suitable for eating. ”

“ The stream thus affected brings with it the algae spores and animalcules which constitute the oyster's food. But where is the oyster's mouth? Speaking popularly, it is away back near the hinge of the shell, as shown in the cut. To this point the current flows. Now, it must not be supposed that all is fish that comes to the oyster's net. Far from it. Hence this mollusk has eclectic functions. Doubtless a sharp spicule of a sponge may occasionally get into the mouth, even as a bone splinter can get by accident into a human throat. ”

“ Divide them carefully, clear out the oysters with a knife, and put the shells into your aquarium, and you will find that an oyster at home is a very different thing from an oyster on a stall.
You ought, besides, to dredge many handsome species of shells, which you would never pick up along the beach; and if you are conchologizing in earnest, you must not forget to bring home a tin box of shell sand, to be washed and picked over in a dish at your leisure, or forget either to wash through a fine sieve, over the boat’s side, any sludge and ooze which the dredge brings up. ”

“ It is not yet ascertained whether shell-fish have sexes or not; there are in the oyster-kind fruitful individuals, and others which are not so; those which are fruitful are distinguished by a delicate border which surrounds the body of the oyster, and they are called males. ”

“ This is exactly the point to which Nature directs her energies in arranging her economical disposition of the oyster or mussel constitution. We have seen that the natural and persistent state of oyster life is a condition of unclosure, while the opposite action of shutting the shell is only a transitory and infrequent phase of bivalve existence at the best. There is afforded a chance for the exercise of mechanical expediency in making the open state of the shell a matter of ease, and one carried out without effort or exercise of energy. ”

“ The oyster, moreover, as it lies in the shell, seems capable of expanding or spreading that part of the body which lies under the hinge laterally upon and into these depressions, a circumstance very easily observed in the half famished oyster, because these lateral expansions of the animal are then more visibly elongated along the passage of these lateral grooves of the hinge, and give the pointed end of the animal a somewhat cornuted appearance. ”

“ The oyster, which possesses a complete digestive system, consisting of a mouth, stomach, intestine and liver, obtains its food from the minute organisms or particles of matter which flow into its mouth by the currents of water which pass through its gills. From the time of the Romans, who highly appreciated the oysters of Britain, this shell-fish has been a favourite delicacy, not only for its rich flavour, which depends upon its feeding ground, but also for the nutritive qualities it possess, making it especially useful for invalids. ”

“ As soon as an oyster is taken out of the sea, it closes its shells, and keeps them closed until the shock of removal has passed away, or perhaps until the desirability of a fresh supply of water suggests itself. The men take advantage of this to exercise the oysters, removing them from the sea for longer and longer periods. In time this has the desired effect; the well-educated mollusc learns that it is hopeless to ‘open’ when out of the water, and so keeps his shell closed and his gills moist, and his general economy in good condition. ”

“ I wish you to strike the cause of my ailment, if it is in your power to reach it.”
“It shall be done,” said the Doctor, at the same time lifting his cane, and demolishing a decanter of gin that stood upon the sideboard!
Inhabitants of an Oyster.—Observations with the microscope have shown that the shell of an oyster is a world occupied by an innumerable quantity of small animals, compared to which the oyster itself is a colossus. The liquid enclosed between the shells of the oyster, contains a multitude of embryos, covered with transparent scales, which swim with ease ”

“ Pholades are very nutritious, but they have a disagreeable smell; but common oysters are very like all these sorts of shell-fish, and are more nutritious. There are also some kinds which are called wild oysters; and they are very nutritious, but they have not a good smell, and moreover they have a very indifferent flavour. But Aristotle, in his treatise about Animals, says, "Oysters are of all the following kinds: there are the pinna, the mussel, the oyster, the cteis, the solen, the cockle, the limpet, the small oyster, the balanus. ”

“ Nature, too, has given the oyster a sensitive perception of the changes of light as the means of its protection from the many enemies it has to contend with; for if the shadow of an approaching boat is thrown forward so as to cover it, it closes the valves of its shell before any undulation of the water can have reached it. ”

“ Do you think a desiccated codfish would rise to a fly, or wouldn't you have to fish for him with a colander?' And so he kept reeling out a jackassery like that until directly he said, 'I'll tell you, professor, what this country needs is a fresh-water oyster. Now, it has occurred to me that maybe the best variety to plant would be the ordinary fried oyster. It seems to be popular, and it has the advantage of growing without a shell. ”

“ During that month, by the law of the Admiralty Court, the dredgers have liberty to take every kind of oyster, whatsoever be its size. When they have taken them they gently raise with a knife the small brood from the cultch, and then they throw the cultch in again, to preserve the ground for the future, unless they are so newly spat, that they cannot be safely severed from the cultch, in which case they are permitted to take the stone or shell, which the spat is upon, one shell having often twenty spats. ”

“ Oyster.—Possibly the most valuable of all of the mollusks. There are various species in all parts of the world, but the best is the American species, which now occurs from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico. Formerly it extended to the coast of Maine, and even now there are scattered beds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The oyster grows in shallow water, fastening its shell to some rock or shell, and in this way large beds are formed. They are also planted; that is, the young are taken and placed in favorable situations for rapid growth. ”

“ What aggravates the matter is that oysters have what Professor Kellogg calls "wonderfully efficient mechanisms for straining dangerous organisms out of the water." "Several gallons of water every day pass through the gills of every full-grown oyster or clam, and every solid particle is removed from it and remains in the body." "It is thus plain that even if relatively few in the water, the chances are that a dangerous number of disease organisms will be strained out of it by these shell-fish." ”

“ Properly speaking, however, the Pearl oyster (Avicula margaritacea) , from which the greater number of pearls, and the largest quantity of mother-of-pearl is obtained, is not an oyster strictly so called, but belongs to an allied genus. The pearl oyster is an oval-pointed recurved-edged mussel; the lower shell with a hood-shaped hollow point, the upper one like a cover, leafy and pearly, of a rosy purple-white colour. The common oyster (Ostrea edulis) , on the contrary, has a round-oval mussel-shell, thin towards the edges, with tiled leaves adhering to one another, the upper shell quite flat. ”

“ The animal lives—as may be seen on looking at a tub of oysters as they lie amid their native element—with the shell unclosed for purposes of nutrition and breathing. If, however, we tap the living oyster or mussel ever so lightly, we find the shell to close with a snap that renders the persuasion of the oyster-knife necessary for its forcible unclosure. ”

“ Shell-fish are far less digestible, the Oyster being the only exception. The nitrogenous matter in oysters is fourteen parts, of fatty matter one and a half, of saline matter two, and of water eighty. At the time of spawning—from May to September—they lose their good condition, and become unwholesome. ”

“ This creature, usually about half an inch long, crawls on an oyster—usually a young one—and with a rasp-like tongue files a hole in the shell, through which it sucks the juices out of the oyster. The only thing that keeps the oyster-drill in check at all is that as soon as it is big enough for a younger drill to climb on its shell, it is apt to suffer the same fate. ”

“ Oysters are of various colors; in Spain they are red, in Illyricum of a tawny hue, and at Circeii black, both in meat and shell. But in every country, those oysters are the most highly esteemed that are compact without being slimy from their secretions, and are remarkable more for their thickness than their breadth. They should never be taken in either muddy or sandy spots, but from a firm, hard bottom; the meat should be compressed, and not of a fleshy consistence; and the oyster should be free from fringed edges, and lying wholly in the cavity of the shell. ”

“ You sometimes hear of a person who leads a monotonous life, and you think perhaps of the Oyster shut up in his shell all alone, one by himself; this notion you now know to be a false one; although it is true that he has but one abductor muscle, and therefore belongs to the division of the Pectinidæ family called Monomyaria, while the Pearl Oyster has two, and therefore belongs to that termed Dimyaria. ”

“ Wait till its shell opens, and then shake in from a spoon a little Borneo camphor, mixed and rubbed into a powder with an equal portion of genuine musk. The oyster will then close its shell and its flesh will be melted into a liquid. Add a little more of the above ingredients, and with a fowl's feather brush it over the parts and round the wound, getting nearer and nearer every time till at last you brush it into the wound; the pain will thus gradually cease. A small oyster will do if a large one is not to be had. ”

“ Looking in the direction of the movement of Book’s hand, what was his surprise to see a snail with a shell on his back crawling across the table. Where he came from, Willis could not tell.
“When looking at that oyster this afternoon you noticed a thickened portion fastened to a dark spot on the valve,” said Book.
“I remember,” said Willis.
“There is a muscle,” continued Book, “fastened at the dark spot on each valve. It becomes very strong by use. An oyster knows how to let it stretch, thus opening the valves to allow water to enter his chamber. ”

“ In Europe, the scallop is considered quite a delicacy and several tons are gathered annually. One species (Pecten jacobaeus) has been dignified as a badge of several orders of knighthood and it was also worn by pilgrims to the Holy Land a good many years ago. It was called “St. James’ Shell.”
The most common shell to the layman is the oyster (Ostrea virginica) , the cultivation of which occupies the attention of a large number of men and the investment of considerable capital. The oyster is free and active when young, but becomes attached to some submerged object early in life. ”