Payen gives the following as the composition of the oyster:—
| Mean of two Analyses. | |
| Nitrogenous matter | 14·010 |
| Fatty matter | 1·515 |
| Saline matter | 2·695 |
| Non-nitrogenous matter and loss | 1·395 |
| Water | 80·385 |
| ———— | |
| 100·00 |
See Shell fish, Sauces, &c.
Oyster, Scalloped. Put them with crums of bread, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a bit of butter, into scallop shells or saucers, and bake them before the fire in a Dutch oven.
Oysters, Fried (to garnish boiled fish). Make a batter of flour, milk and eggs, add a little seasoning to it; dip the oysters into it, and fry them a fine yellow brown. A little nutmeg should be put into the seasoning, and a few crumbs of bread into the flour.
Oysters, Stewed. Open them, and separate the liquor from them, then free them from grit by washing, strain the liquor, and add it to the oysters with a small piece of mace and lemon peel, and a few white peppercorns. Simmer very gently, and add some cream and a little flour and butter. Let them be served with sippets.
Oysters, To Feed. Pat them into water, and wash them with a birch broom till quite clean. Then place them bottom downwards in an earthenware pan; sprinkle them with flour, oatmeal, and salt, and then cover with water. Repeat this treatment every day, taking care to make the water pretty salt.
OZOKERIT. Syn. Fossil wax, Mineral wax. This substance, which has within the last few years been utilised as a source of paraffin and the mineral hydrocarbon oils, is found in various localities in the tertiary strata, mostly occurring in, or in close proximity to, the coal measures. But although extensive deposits of it are to be met with in Gallicia and on the slopes of the Carpathian
mountains, it is by no means an abundant body. In the Austrian empire there are many large manufactories for its conversion into paraffin and the mineral oils. In our country there is we believe only one, that of Messrs Field. Ozokerit is usually met with as a brown and compact substance, occasionally yellow; however, it is sometimes black. It melts at a temperature varying from 60° to 80° C.
Neft-gil is a substance very similar to ozokerit, and is formed on the island of Swätoi-Ostrow in the Caspian Sea. According to Rossmässler, neft-gil is treated in the following manner:—15 cwt. of the crude material is put into iron stills provided with a leaden worm, and submitted to fractional distillation, yielding 68 per cent. of distillate, consisting of 8 per cent. of oil, and 60 per cent. of crude paraffin. The oil thus obtained is yellow, opalescent, possesses an ethereal odour, and a sp. gr. of 0·75 to 0·81. Each distillation yields a quantity of a light oil boiling below 100° C., which is used for the purpose of purifying the paraffin. The crude paraffin obtained by the first distillation is tolerably pure, has a yellow colour, and can at once be treated by the hydraulic press and centrifugal machine; the oil from these operations is again submitted to fractional distillation in order to obtain more paraffin. The pressed paraffin is melted and treated at 170° to 180° C. with sulphuric acid, which is next neutralised by means of lime, and the paraffin again rapidly distilled, then again submitted to strong pressure, and the material obtained treated with 25 per cent. of the light oil; then again melted, again pressed, and finally treated with steam for the purpose of eliminating the last trace of essential oil. The material obtained by this treatment is a perfectly pure, colourless material, free from smell, transparent, and so hard as to exhibit in large blocks almost a metallic sound. The fusing point is 63° C.