22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



both sides of living nature are represented, and we can throw light 

 upon questions that arise from the standpoints of very varied lines 

 of biological investigation. 



As this occasion is not only our annual business meeting, but also 

 our commemoration of the birthday of Linnaeus, our thoughts 

 naturally turn to the life and work of the great ."Swede to v\'hose 

 influence upon the progress of Science botanists and zoologists are 

 equally indebted. 



It has occurred to me that you nmy be interested to hear a few 

 remarks upon a section ol: his work which is, I believe, little known, 

 but which I have had occasion recently to look into — a subject 

 moreover that has in itself an attraction for most men, and also 

 women — namely, Pearls. Considering the activity of his mind 

 and the wide range of his \vork, no one will be surprised to hear that 

 Linnaeus experimented on the formation of pearls in shell-fish, and 

 that he belie\ed he was able to produce valuable pearls by artificial 

 methods. I do not refer to the manufacture of artificial pearls, 

 but to the artificial stimulation of shell-fish so as to induce them 

 to produce by the natural process real pearls in increased number 

 or at an unusual time or place. AVith such an object in vie\^-, it 

 is necessary to enquire first how pearls are naturally produced in 

 shell-fish. One of the Linnean manuscripts which I shall have to 

 tell you of presently states: — "It is certain that nature ])roduces 

 pearls every day, and if anyone be able to steal from her this 

 knowledge, it can only be he whom she has admitted into her 

 interior and most sacred places." Linnaeus had better grounds 

 than anyone else of his time for considering himself as so 

 privileged. 



There is an early Hindu belief that at night or during heavy rain 

 the Pearl Oysters ascend to the surface of the sea, open their 

 shells to the air and take in drops of fresh water which become 

 consolidated as pearls. 



Pjiuy and other classical writers record the similar belief that 

 pearls are caused by drops of dew which enter the gaping shell 

 when uncovered with \\ ater. A more poetic form is that they are 

 due to the tears of the Nereids, or as Moore has it in ' Peri and 

 the Pearl ' :— 



" And precious the tear as that raiu from the sky 

 Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea." 



Colombus, we are told, was convinced he had found the locality 

 for Orient pearls when he reached a spot where the trees grew 

 down into the sea and had their roots covered with oysters gaping 

 ready to receive the dew drops from the leaves above. 



iEliau, on the other hand, thought the pearls were formed by 

 a lightning-flash entering the opening shell ; and many other 

 writers since have speculated as to mysterious pathological 

 effusions, as to displaced OA'a, as to similarity to calculi and to 

 galls, and as to calcification of deposits round sand-grains, algae, 



