THE OYSTER AS SCIENCE ANALYSES IT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12266, 9 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE OYSTER AS SCIENCE ANALYSES IT.

Did you ever, when enjoying a dish of oysters, stop to wonder whether they were really nourishment-giving or just a delusive delicacy, more for pleasure than profit?

It is a question that has often been asked and often answered both ways.

Recent extensive investigations in England have solved the problem in a satisfactory way. An elaborate series of chemical analyses in the laboratories of the Lancet, the oldest medical periodical in the world, show that the oyster supplies all classes of food substance—proteid, carbohydrate, fat, and certain mineral salts—but that the percentage of nutritive material is comparatively small.

About four-fifths of the oyster is water, though there is but little more solid matter in mutton or beef, and the meat lacks some of the food matter or the shellfish.

Moreover, the flesh of the oyster is particularly easy of digestion, being largely, in fact, assimilated by the substances within itself. " '

For these reasons, apart from the gastronomic delights of the oyster, it is recommended as a food .especially for invalids with delicate digestion. It is most easily assimilated when eaten raw.

It is: not generally known that a considerable percentage of the mollusk is soluble in various liquids. This makes the choice of beverages taken with the oyster of importance in its digestion. The best solvent is gin diluted with four parts of water. This is in accord with the English custom of drinking gin with oysters. About 42 per cent, of the solid matter of the shellfish is dissolved in this liquid ; about 37.7 per cent, in chablis, and about the same amount in cold water.

Oddly enough, stout has no effect on the ovster, and beer only a slight effect. Champagne, however, is", scientifically, a highly suitable accompaniment to the dish. The rough analysis of the oyster is as follows : —

Per cent. Moisture 77.0 Organic matter 21.4 Mineral matter 1.6 100.0 The liqiuid contained in the oyster-shell has generally been considered valuable. It contains almost no nourishment, however in fact, by nine per cent, of organic matter.

The edible part of the mollusk consists chiefly of liver, hence its capacity for digesting itself. When the liver is crushed the hepatic cells are set free and the glycogen is brought into contact with the'hepatic ferment, so that a veritable auto-diges-tion if the liver takes place.