Introduction. XXVII 
cowry was placed in the mouth because it was supposed 
to be able to animate the dead: but when it came to 
have a new value as currency this practice lost its original 
significance and the use of the shell—or the actual metallic 
coin that superseded it—for this purpose was rationalised 
into the belief that it represented Charon’s fare for ferry- 
ing the deceased to the other world. 
In India, China and America the vitalising powers of 
the cowry were transferred to the pearl, which with rice 
(in America the so-called “native rice”) was put into the 
mouth of the dead to insure its continued welfare. The 
rice had a significance analogous to that of the cowry or 
pearl—it was endowed with “soul substance,’ which was 
necessary to attain a future existence. 
It was an early theory of pathology that all illnesses, 
and even death itself, were due to the abstraction of 
“soul substance” from the living. Thus pearls, as the 
bearers of vitality, were quite logically the appropriate 
panacea for almost every ailment. Hence pearls, and in 
fact all of the shells discussed in this book, occupied a 
very prominent place in early pharmacopceias. 
In his great treatise on “The Religious System of 
China” (Vol. 1Y., Book II., p. 331) De Groot says :— 
“Clear reasons for pearls being considered as depositories 
and distributors of vital force we have found in no book, 
nor have we received any by word of mouth from Chinese 
acquaintances, Perhaps the matter must be put to the 
account of nothing else than Koh Hung’s inventive genius 
. we must plead incompetency to solve this question.” 
According to the old Chinese writer Koh Hung, pearls 
are rich in “soul-substance,” in virtue of which they are 
not only life-conferring, but also facilitate parturition, and 
prevent the putrefaction of the dead body. The full 
information given by De Groot of ancient Chinese ideas 
