MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 143 



Hence, when the moisture evaporates, a greater deposit will 

 take place at this spot than any other part of the pearl, and the 

 irregularity will be gradually increased. In process of time a 

 nodule will appear, formed of minute crystals grouped in a 

 spherical form, which is the figure of the equilibrium tiiat any 

 ag»re«ate of unite tends to assume under the influence of 

 mutual attraction, and supported on a slender pedicle. As the 

 sphericle increases in size, the force of gravity overcomes the 

 cohesion of the pedicle, and a little pearl lies alongside the old 

 one. Consecutive deposits will continue to be made on its sur- 

 face, causing it to grow gradually larger. But as the surface of 

 a sphere only increases as the square of its diameter, while the 

 mass increases by the cube, the growth of the pearl will be 

 most rapid when it is small, and the additions made to its bulk 

 more imperceptible the larger it gets. And so we pre told it 

 takes three years for anew pearl to be formed, but Iv'rty years 

 for it to attain "the size that jewellers generally set, three in a 

 ring." Such an hypothesis must be taken for what it is worth. 

 My object is not so much to offer a solution of the problem, 

 as to indicate that, through the operation of natural causes, of 

 which, possibly, science is ignorant, it may be that pearls pro- 

 liferate in the manner that is alleged. 



(Sd.) W. M. 

 Mh January, 1879. 



The Maritime Code and Sir S. Baffles. 

 (See Paper at page 52.) 



In the Weekly Register, a newspaper fomerly published 

 in Malacca, there appeared in the year 1840, a translation of 

 the Malay Code, with some remarks on Malay Codes, and on 

 the aboriginal tribes of the Peninsula, and with translations of 

 two Malay Manuscripts, one regarding the Menangkabau 

 in Johor, the other relating to the first arrival of the Portu- 

 guese in Malacca. 



This Series of papers was begun on the 9th January; 

 1840, and was completed on the 3rd September of the 

 same year. 



. The name of the translator is not given, but the paper 

 is described as "an original fragment of an unpublished 

 manuscript/' 



