The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

130

LOBSTER.

turtle resemble the flesh of the chicken, other parts
have a fishy taste, other parts are albuminous, like
the white of an egg, and all parts seem to be nutritious.
Crustacea,
Many of the species of this class are esculent, and
some are excellent food. In this country and England
are used the common lobster, the thorny lobster or
sea crawfish, the river crawfish, the large edible blackclawed crab, the common or small edible crab, the
prawn, and the shrimp. They have all the same
characteristics. Being active in their habits, and having
powerful muscles, their flesh abounds in nitrates and
phosphates, but is rather hard and compact, and therefore requires good powers of digestion, and they are
adapted for food to active, healthy persons to assist
in the labor of the day, but they are most miserably
misapplied to evening entertainments in the form of
salads. The lobster is the most valuable of this class
of food, and is much the most extensively used.
Molluscous Animals.
In this country the only species of this class used as
food to any extent are clams and oysters; and in England, besides the oyster, the mussel, the cockle, the
scallop, the periwinkle, the limpet, and the whelk.
But the oyster holds the highest rank in this class of
food, and is used among all classes, forming a branch
of trade very extensive and important.