Pvn H,i I'UitlS

OSTREA. 47
phical question which he makes the fool ask of Lear, as
to the mode of constructing its shell, would be difficult
for the best conchologist to answer satisfactorily. It
has even been celebrated in pastoral verse. Sannaza-
rius, an eccentric Italian writer of the last century,
changed the scene in this kind of poetry from woods
and lawns to the barren beach and boundless ocean,
introducing sea-calves in the room of kids and lambs,
seamews for the lark and the linnet, and presenting his
mistress with oysters instead of fruits and flowers. There
is no lack of gossip on the subject. The recent publication
of three books attests its popularity. One con-
tains the " Life of an Oyster"; another gives directions
" where, how, and when to find, breed, cook, and eat
it"; and the third explains its medicinal and nutritious
qualities. All these brochures are very amusing. The
second teaches no less than fifteen different ways of
dressing this delicacy ; and it would especially interest
those who are not true lovers of it in its natural state,
and therefore approve of Gay's sentiment—
" The man had sure a palate covered o'er
With brass or steel, that on the rocky shore
First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat,
And risq'd the living morsel down his throat."
But there is death even in the pot; and the 'Comptes
Rendus' for March last mentions some fatal cases of
poisoning by green oysters imported into Rochefort from
Falmouth. The Editor of the (
Journal de Conchyliologie/
in commenting on this accident, remarks that
English copper, in a metallic state, is a product " tresestimable,"
but less valuable as an article of food. Old
Fuller,
in his '
Worthies/ says that oysters are the only
meat which men eat alive and yet account it no cruelty.
Probably,
in his time German ladies did not crunch