348 An Account of the Pearl Fifbery at Ceylon. 
crept in as enemies, or were drawn in by the animal itfelf. 
At any rate turtles and crabs are inimical to the animals, and 
a fmall living crab was found in one of them. 
The pearls are only in the fofter part of the animal, and 
never in that firm mufcular column above mentioned. We. 
find them in general near the earth, and on both fides of the 
mouth. The natives entertain the fame foolifh opinion con- 
cerning the formation of the pearl which the ancients did: 
they fuppofe them formed from dew-drops in connection with 
fun-beams. A Brahmen informed me that it was recorded 
in one of his Sanfcrit books, that the pearls are formed in the 
month of May at the appearance of the Soatee ftar (one of 
their twenty-feven conftellations), when the oyfters come up 
to the furface of the water to catch the drops of rain. One 
of the moft celebrated conchologifts * fuppofes that the pearl 
is formed by the oyfter in order to defend itfelf from the at- 
tacks of the pholades and boreworms. But we may be af- 
fured that in this fuppofition he is miftaken; for, although 
thefe animals often penetrate the outer layers of the pearl 
fhell, and there occafion hollow nodes, yet, on examination, 
it will be found that they are never able to pierce the firm 
layer with which the infide of the fhell is lined. How can 
the pearls be formed as a defence againft exterior worms, 
when, even on fhells that contain them, no worm-holes are 
to be feen? It is therefore more probable thefe worms take 
up their habitations in the nodes in order to protect them- 
_felves from the attacks of an enemy, than that they are ca- 
pable of preying on an animal fo well defended as the pearl | 
fifh is. It is unneceffary to repeat the various opinions and 
hypothefes of other modern authors; it is much eafier to 
criticife them, than to fubftitute’ in their place a more ra- 
tional theory. That of Reaumur, mentioned in the memoirs 
of the French Academy for 1712, is the moft probable, viz. 
that the pearls are formed like bezoars and other ftones in _ 
different animals, and are apparently the efleéts of a difeafe, - 
In fhort, it is very evident that the pearl is formed by an ex- 
travafation, of a glutingus juice, either within the body, or on 
the furface of the animal: the former cafe is the moft’ cont: 
* The Sais Mr. C bemnitz at Copenhagen, 
mon, ~ 
