In many parts of Europe muscles are nearly as much in request for the table as oysters; and at Rochelle, and some other places, modes are adopted of increasing their excellence, by placing them, after they are taken from the sea, in pools or ditches where the sea-water is stagnant, and introduced only at particular periods as it is wanted. Muscles are caught nearly through the whole year, though they are considered best in the autumn.
To some constitutions they are an unwholesome food, producing inflammation, eruptions on the skin, and an intolerable itching over the whole body; the best remedies for which are said to be a liberal use of oil, emetics, or milk.
275. The OYSTER (Ostrea edulis, Fig. 77) is a testaceous animal, too well known to need any description.
It is found affixed to rocks, or in large beds, both in the European and Indian seas.
The use of oysters as food has rendered them celebrated in all ages. The ancient Roman writers speak of them as in great request by that luxurious people. Pliny relates that in his time they were considered so exquisite as, when in perfection, to have been sold for enormous prices; and that Apicius, the notorious epicure or glutton, invented a peculiar method of preserving and fattening them.
Of all the European oysters, the largest are those that are caught off the coast of Normandy, and with which Paris is principally supplied. But the best are of middle or somewhat small size, and are caught in the waters of Malden and Colne in Essex, or near the mouth of the Thames. They are dredged up by a net (with an iron scraper at the mouth) which is dragged by a rope from a boat over the beds; and then stored in large pits formed for the purpose, and furnished with sluices through which, at spring tides, the salt water is suffered to flow. In these pits they acquire their full quality, and become fit for the table in six or eight weeks. The most delicious oysters are considered to be those which are fattened in the salt-water creeks near Milton in Kent, and Colchester in Essex.
Oysters are out of season during the summer-time, the period at which they deposit their spawn, and which commences in the month of April. Each spawn has the appearance of a drop of candle-grease, and adheres to rocks, stones, or other substances on which it happens to be deposited. In some oyster-beds, old shells, pieces of wood, &c. under the denomination of cultch, are purposely thrown in to receive the spawn. From these, in the month of May, the oyster-fishers are allowed to separate the spawn for the purpose of transferring it to other beds; but they are required, under certain penalties, to throw the cultch in again, that the beds may be preserved for the future; unless the spawn should be so small as not with safety to be separable from the cultch.
Oysters are considered to be first fit for the table when about a year and half old; and they are among the few animals which in Europe are not merely eaten raw, but even in a living state. Oysters are also eaten cooked in various ways, as sauce to different kinds of fish, and pickled.
The shells, like those of other testaceous animals, consist of calcareous earth in combination with animal glue; and, by calcination, they yield a pure kind of quick-lime. In this state they are not only useful as lime, but are also frequently employed by stationers and attorneys as pounce for rubbing upon parchment previously to its being written upon.
276. The GREAT SCALLOP (Pecten maximus, Fig. 78) is a testaceous animal with a double shell, flat on one side, and convex on the other, with about fourteen rounded ribs, which are longitudinally grooved, and a projection or ear on each side of the hinge.