Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 253 



Pliny alfo tells the ftory of Cleopatra and the 

 precious pearl, which fhe diflblved in vinegar and 

 then fwallowed, in order to carry out her vain- 

 glorious boaft that her fupper fhould coil her 

 fixty millions of fefterces. Clodius, however, the 

 fon of a tragic poet, had long before her time per- 

 formed the fame fenfelefs feat. After the taking 

 of Alexandria, pearls were common at Rome. 

 Arabia, Pliny notes, if blefled in its perfumes, is 

 ftill more enriched by its feas and the abundance 

 of pearls which they produce. 1 



In the Old Teftament, the word "pearl" is 

 fuppofed to mean " mother-of-pearl," or " cryftal," 

 or " rubies." The pearl proper was not known to 

 the Jews until later times ; it often appears in the 

 imagery of the New Teftament. 



The true pearl-oyfter is the avicula margaritifera 

 of the Perfian Gulf, Cape Comorin, and Ceylon ; 

 but in Britain pearls are found in the unio marga- 

 ritiferus, in the oflrea edulis (oyfter), and even in 

 the mytilus communis (common mufTel), though 

 thefe are not fo valuable. The white iridefcent 

 mother-of-pearl fubftance in thefe mells is known 

 as " nacre." It is compofed of layers of mem- 

 branous fhell-fubftance. The pearl itfelf is merely 

 an accretion of nacre, generally round fome 

 fubftance of foreign origin which has found its way 

 into the (hell. Hence artificial pearls have been 

 procured by wounding the creature with a fharp- 

 pointed implement or introducing foreign bodies. 



1 See Pliny (Holland's Tranflation), ix. 35 ; xii. 1 8 ; and 

 Hor., ii. 4, 239. 



