The Greedy Book. By Frank Schloessor. (Gay and Bird. 5s.
net.) —This "gastronomical anthology "—a somewhat philistine use of the word "anthology "—is without question a very amusing' book. Some of the stories are curious in the highest degree.. We may take the item " Oysters " as a sample. The feats of' oyster-eating are enormous. H. Laperte, an official of the Directory, ate thirty-two dozen, and then began his dinner with "all the vigour and hunger of a man who had been fasting." So,.. at least, avers M. Brillat-Savarin. Ho did better than the English "Milord," who died after twenty-nine dozen. He was buried near the tomb of Heloise, and his friend used to deposit oyster-shells on it, so runs the story. Oysters, it seems, ought to be fed while, they are being broiled, fed with white wine and grated bread,—if they are to be cooked at all, a doubt in which we sympathise with our author. Much may be said about the oyster, which, it will be remembered, has a history as old as Homer. Not wholly remote from the oyster is the snail ; and about the snail' also we are told interesting things in this volume. In the snail's' flesh there is ninety per cent. of proteid. We ought to eat them, but somehow we do not. In France, however, they are so popular that sham snails are manufactured. Perhaps the most unobjec-- tionable use is that of window-cleaning. You put a snail on the outside of a pane, and it devours all foreign matter upon it. Literature is not left out of account. A propos of the snail, we have a curious parallel pointed out between Herrick, who compares a. lady's feet to snails which
"did creep A little out, and then, As if they played at ho-peep, Did soon draw in again,"
and Lovelace, with his famous
Iler feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice stole in and out."
And there is an interesting account of Alexandre Dumas pare in . his capacity as cook.
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