ELEMENTS OF MATEP.IA MEDICA.
1348
atom)'
Brandt {Ibid. Bd. ii.) has given an elaborate account of the a 11of the oyster, to which I must refer the student interested 1,1details. e of
Hab. —European and Indian Seas. Our own coasts furnish s °the finest kinds. Those found at Purfleet are said to he the best- i0Oyster Fisheries . —Oysters are caught by dredging. 1° olt a ioiigimprove their flavour and size they are laid on beds in creeks 0 fshore, where they rapidly improve. Colchester and other pj* ( je-Essex are the nurseries or feeding grounds for the metropolis- v ' 0
tails respecting the treatment of oysters in beds, see Spratt’s Hist- JRoyal Society , p. 307). /W#
Description. —The officinal parts of oysters are the shel' s ^ olia teostrea). The hollow valves are preferred, as they contain more, car a „Jof lime. These, when freed from impurities, by washing, boib’G’crushing, are dried and ground to an impalpable powder, whic >being submitted to the process of elutriation, is usually made U 1 ^small conical masses, called in the shops prepared oyster shed ^ellprceparatce, Pli. L ; testa: ostreeepreeparafa). When calcined, oysteryields a quicklime formerly much esteemed as a lithontriptic. a , a (i
Composition. —Oyster shells have been analyzed by IlucfioBrandes (CJmelin, Handb. d. Chem. ii. 1477), and by Rogers ^/gjb)'Journ. vol. xxvi. p. 361).—The flesh of the oyster has been anal)Pasquier (Gmelin, op. supra cit.)
Bucholz and Brandes's Analysis.
Carbonate of lime. 98-6
Phosphate of lime. 12
Albuminous matter. 0-5
Oyster shells. 10.05
1
l3 -6
Flesh of the oyster .
alPf
Physiological Effects and Uses. —Prepared oyster shells ^almost solely of carbonate of lime, and possess the same me d :Sers>'perties as prepared chalk (see p. 356), which is now almost u nsubstituted for them. Tt is ra 0l y
The flesh of the oyster furnishes a delicious article of food. Adigestible in the raw state than when cooked (by roasting, s co h°I^ ul|1 eHjstewing); for the heat employed coagulates and hardens the a j jea t^which is then less easily soluble in the gastric juice; and tne ^ „j\butter adds still more to the indigestibility of the dish. As i alown observation extends, the finest raw oysters of the London ^ pf-(usually called natives) rarely disagree even with dyspeptics,
Cullen [Mat. Med.) declares oysters easy of digestion. Very gf^.however, are the statements of some writers (Pearson, Pract. Synflr Q ..0PMat. Alim. 1808). Poisonous effects even have been ascribed ^pd 0 ’ 1(Christison, Treat, on Poisons). Considering the enormous c0ll * e jy r^of those animals, their supposed ill effects must be of extrei Qgllefoccurrence. The statement of Dr. Clarke {Trans, of the L° n j e livc f )of Phys. vol. v. p. 109), that oysters taken immediately > Il)
are apt to occasion apoplexies or convidsions, appears big ppefprobable. An aphrodisiac property is usually ascribed to oysters-