432 METALS—THE NOBLER.
Some
writers have formed a conclusion that the banana is the tree from which
our first parents are said to have made aprons for themselves in the
Garden of Eden. The leaves thereof (it being often called a fig-tree by
the ancients) are three, four, or five feet long, and proportionately
broad : they may easily be sewn together by the thread-like filaments
which are to be peeled from the body of the tree.
Again,
certain oysters likewise (notably those collected from a bed on the
river Fal, Devon), which are of a green hue, owe this colour to traces
of Copper which they contain. Chemical analyses have shown that the
amount of Copper per oyster is only a very small fraction of a grain,
so that the consumption of a reasonably moderate number of these
particular molluscs would not be likely to entail any injurious
consequences : indeed, under certain physical conditions, would be
salutary. It being also an established fact that dilute solutions of
Copper salts exercise a marked destructive action on many bacteria, for
this valid reason Copper cooking vessels are, in their proper degree,
excellent for use against bacterial contamination of the culinary
preparations made therein. This specially holds good with regard to
starchy foods, and fruits when cooked for jams and preserves.
One
of David Copperfield's feats in housekeeping, (when recently married to
his pretty doll of a Dora,) was " a little dinner to Traddles." When
the boiled leg of mutton appeared, Copperfield wondered how it came to
pass that all their joints of meat were of such extraÂordinary shapes :
whether their butcher contracted for all the deformed sheep that came
into the world ; but he kept his reflections to himself. " Next came
the oysters." " I bought a beautiful little barrel of them,"
