FACTS ABOUT THE "LOBSTEK PEARL" 



PROFESSOR FRANCIS H. HERRICK 

 Western Reserve University 



Theough the kindness of Dr. H. M. Smith, of the 

 U. S. Bureau of Fisheries my attention was recently 

 called to reports of the discovery of a "lobster pearl," 

 which had a wide circulation in the newspaper press. 



In an article credited to the New York Times, Mr. 

 Herman Meyer, a pearl dealer in New York, to whom 

 this object had been sent for examination, is reported to 

 have described it as follows: 



As best I can see, the pearl has none of the laminated structure of 

 a pearl produced by a shell. But, while it seems one homogeneous 

 mass, at the same time it is as much a pearl as a lobster can produce, 

 and as true a pearl for a lobster as is a regular pearl for a shell. 

 Lobsters are not in-layers, and the inside meat of a lobster does not 

 move as does the inside of a pearl shell. In my opinion it is a lobster 



In reply to a letter of inquiry on the subject, Mr. Al- 

 fred Eno, of Jamaica, New York, gave this account of 

 the finding of the "pearl": 



In July, 1907, accompanied by F. W. Denton, of Hollis, Long Island, 

 I was eating dinner at the Orient Point Inn, Orient Point, L. L, and 

 besides other things, we had some lobsters which had been caught in 

 Plum Gut, off the end of Orient Point, the day before. Mr. Dunton 

 broke open one of the claws of the lobster he was eating, and in biting 

 into the meat, his teeth came in contact with a hard substance 



Mr. Eno kept this "hard substance" as a curiosity, 

 and two years later sent it to the dealer in New York, 

 who, as related above, pronounced it to be a true pearl. 



The following further details were given to me in a 

 letter by Mr. Meyer: 



The pearl was about 7 millimeters in diameter; nearly round 

 smooth; the color was a light manilla, about that of the inside o 

 shell after boiling. The hardness was about 3; the texture was 

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the 

 olid, 



