﻿

  THE 
  ZOOLOGIST 
  

  

  No. 
  752.— 
  February, 
  1904. 
  

  

  THE 
  STORY 
  OF 
  A 
  PEARL. 
  

  

  By 
  Prof. 
  McIntosh, 
  M.D., 
  LL.D., 
  F.R.S., 
  &c, 
  Gatty 
  Marine 
  

  

  Laboratory, 
  St. 
  Andrew's 
  University. 
  

  

  (Plate 
  I.) 
  

  

  Few 
  subjects 
  in 
  natural 
  history 
  have 
  had 
  so 
  much 
  attention 
  

   devoted 
  to 
  them 
  both 
  by 
  the 
  popular, 
  and, 
  it 
  may 
  be, 
  poetic 
  

   writer, 
  and 
  by 
  men 
  of 
  science, 
  as 
  the 
  subject 
  of 
  this 
  paper. 
  

   Used 
  as 
  pearls 
  were 
  from 
  very 
  early 
  times, 
  and 
  therefore 
  by 
  un- 
  

   civilized 
  races, 
  as 
  ornaments, 
  their 
  innate 
  beauty 
  and 
  peculiar 
  

   fitness 
  for 
  decoration 
  made 
  them 
  popular. 
  Thus 
  they 
  were 
  

   utilized 
  by 
  the 
  Hebrews, 
  the 
  Egyptians, 
  the 
  Ethiopians, 
  the 
  

   Medes, 
  the 
  Persians, 
  the 
  Greeks, 
  and 
  the 
  Romans 
  ; 
  whilst 
  their 
  

   precious 
  nature 
  was 
  described 
  by 
  the 
  Chinese 
  nearly 
  2000 
  years 
  

   before 
  Christ. 
  Even 
  the 
  forgotten 
  races 
  of 
  the 
  Mississippi 
  

   valley 
  diligently 
  collected 
  and 
  employed 
  the 
  fresh-water 
  pearls 
  

   of 
  that 
  region 
  in 
  a 
  remarkable 
  way, 
  for 
  in 
  some 
  of 
  the 
  mounds 
  

   they 
  are 
  found 
  not 
  by 
  hundreds 
  and 
  thousands, 
  but 
  by 
  bushels, 
  

   and 
  in 
  some 
  cases 
  are 
  studded 
  thickly 
  on 
  the 
  garments 
  enveloping 
  

   their 
  dead.* 
  

  

  The 
  earlier 
  writers, 
  such 
  as 
  Pliny 
  and 
  Dioscorides, 
  attributed 
  

   a 
  fanciful 
  origin 
  to 
  pearls, 
  viz. 
  that 
  they 
  arose 
  from 
  drops 
  of 
  

  

  * 
  G. 
  F. 
  Kunz, 
  'Brief 
  History 
  of 
  Gathering 
  Freshwater 
  Pearls 
  in 
  the 
  

   United 
  States.' 
  Bullet. 
  U.S. 
  Fish. 
  Com. 
  vol. 
  xvii. 
  pp. 
  321-330, 
  1898. 
  

  

  Zool. 
  4th 
  ser. 
  vol. 
  VIII., 
  February, 
  1904. 
  E 
  

  

  