Abstract
IN literature dealing with the Flat or European oyster, O. edulis, the statement is frequently made that when the eggs are spawned into the mantle cavity they are held together there and fastened to the gills by a white viscid secretion. There is no doubt that this statement is incorrect and that what has been described as a white viscid secretion is an extrusion of blood-cells entangled in mucus. In a fairly recent publication (Fish. Inv., 3, 1923: London, 1924) I have shown that when oysters are taken out of water—and especially when transported or retained out of water some time—in hot weather, an extensive diapedesis, or bleeding, occurs. Now a large proportion of white-sick oysters, even after lying on a bench some hours, in the breeding, that is, warm, season, begin to bleed more or less, in relation to the temperature and time out of water; further, many oysters spawn at the instant of dredging or after being taken out of water, and in such cases heavier bleeding than usual is liable to occur. It is, however, possible that a certain amount of—but not necessarily extensive—bleeding does normally occur at he act of spawning.
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ORTON, J. The So-called Viscid Secretion in Spawning Oysters. Nature 120, 843 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120843a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120843a0
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