OYSTER

(Lat. ostrea, an oyster.) This name is generally understood to signily the species of Ostracean bivalve called Ostrea edulis, which is one of a numerous genus, characterized by an inequivalve shell, composed of two irregular lamellated valves, of which the convex or under one adheres to rocks, piles, or to the shell of another individual. The animal is unprovided with either a by us or a foot; it is the best flavoured of its cla«s, and has, consequently, been always much esteemed. Vast beds of oysters are artificially formed, and attended top with great care, at the estuary of the Thames and many other l«calities, where the temperature of the water is somewhat raised by a mixture of salt and fresh water, in which they best thrive. Certain restrictions and regulations are enforced in reference to the sale of oysters in the metropolis, in order to favour the multiplicati n and rearing of this valuable bivalve. They are permitted to be sold from.\ugust to May, the close months being May, June, and July. 'They cast their spat or spawn in May, whenj^hey are said to be sick; but begin to recover in June and Jidy, and in August they are perfectly well Oysters differ in quality, according to the different nature of the soil or bed. The best British oysters are found at Purfleet; the worst near Liverpool. The nursing and feeding of oysters is almost exclusively carried on at Col chester, and other places in E«;sex. The oysters are brought from the coast of Hampshire, Dorset, and other maritime counties, even as far as Scotland, and laid on beds or layings in creeks along the shore, where they grow, in two or three years, to a considerable size, and have their Havour improved. There are said to be about 200 ve els, from 12 to 40 or 50 tons burden, immediately employed in dredging for oysters, having from 400 to.'JOO men and boys attached to them. The quantity of oysters bred and taken in E ex, and consumed mostly in London, is supposed to amount to 14,000 or 15,000 bushels a year. {Supp. to Ency. Brit., art. "Fisheries.") Oysters formed a great luxury among the Romans, and, as in France, were served at tiie commencement of a repast. The largest and best of Italy were caught on the shores of the Lucrine; but the Romans used to send ve els even to the coast of Britain in quest of this luxury, the British oysters being then as now in the highest estimation. OZ.«:'NA. {Gr.d^ii,! smell.) An ulcer in the nose which discharges a foetid purulent matter, and is sometimes symptomatic of caries of the bones. P..\ consonant of the labial series. As was to be expected from the approximation of this letter in sound to 6, it is susceptible of interchange with the latter in nearly all the languages of which we have any knowledge, but more especially in the German. Both in this country and on the Continent there are whole districts in which not only is the ear of the natives insensible to the difference between the sound of these letters, but, with a tendency to error of which it would be vain to investigate the cause, they are almost invariably confounded in pronunciation. Of this peculiarity several counties of Wales among ourselves, and the whole of Lower Saxony in Germany, present noted examples. For the most usual abbreviations of this letter, see Abbreviatio.n. P. In Music, an abbreviation of the Italian word piano, soft, detuning that the force of the voice or instru. ment is to be diminished. P.P. means pinpiano, or more soft; and P.P. P. piani imo, as soft as po ible. [s. 879]