118 



ON THE BONES, ETC. 



It is to th© power which the living principle possesses, either of secre- 

 ting or generating the substance of lime by its natural action, that we are 

 indebted for all those elegant shells that enrich the cabinet of the concho- 

 logist, and seem to vie with each other in the beauty of their spots, the 

 splendour and irridescence o* their colours, and the graceful infliction of 

 their wreaths. And it is to the power which the same principle possesses, 

 of forming this substance by a morbid aotion, that we owe not only those 

 unsightly excrescences I have just oieKtiovied, but some of the most costly 

 ornaments of superstition or luxury : those agate-formed bezoards which 

 in Spain, Portugal, and even Holland, were lately worn as amulets against 

 contagion, and which have been I(.t out for hire at a ducat a day, and been 

 sold as high as three hundred guineas a piece ; and those delicate pearls 

 which constitute an object of desire among the fair sex of every country, 

 and which give additional attraction to the most finished form. 



The first are usually obtained from the stomach or intestmes of the goat 

 or antelope; in the latter case being called oriental bezoards, and possess- 

 ing the highest value. The most esteemed are those obtained from the 

 stomach of that species of the oriental antelope called the gazel, to which 

 the Persian and Arabian poets are perpetually adverting whenever they 

 stand in need of an image to express elegance of form, fieetness of speecj, 

 or captivating softness of the ayes. The second are obtained from the 

 inside of the shells of the rnytiius margaritiferus aud mya margarififera^ 

 pearl-muscle and pearl-oyster : the former, proflucing the largest, and con- 

 sequently, the richest, is found most comraonlv on the coast of Ceylon ; 

 the latter not unfrequeiitly on that of our own country, and was traced 

 some centuries ago in great abundance ni the river Conway in Wales, 

 Linneus is said to have been acquainted with a process by which he could 

 excite at pleasure a secretion of neM' pearls in the pearl-oysters which he 

 Icept in his reservoirs. It is generally supposed to be a diseased secretion, 

 somewhat similar to that of the stone in the human bladder. 



The murex fritonis. or musical murex, is here also worth noticing. Its 

 calcareous shell is ventricose, oblong, smooth, with rounded whorls, 

 toothed aperture, and »hort beak, about fifteen inches long, white, and 

 appearing as if covered with brown, yellow, and black scales. It inhabits 

 India and the South Seas, an« j ls used by the iVew Z»-;alanders as a musical 

 shell, and by the Africans and many nations of the East as a military horn. 



Before we (piit this subject, ? will just observe, that it is to the same 

 tribe we are indebted foi our nacre or mother-of-pearl, which is nothing 

 more than the irmermo'st layers of the shell, in which the morbid works or 

 concretions which we call pearls lie imbeilded ; aixl that to the same order 

 of shells the Indians owe their wampum or pieces of common money, which 

 are formed of the N emi^ mercenaria^ or clam-shell, found in a fossil ^state ; 

 and that our own heralds owe the scallop, ostrea maxima^ that so often 

 figures in the field of our family arms, and was formerly w^orn by pilgrims 

 on the hat or coat, in its natural state, as a mark that they had crossed the 

 sea for the purpose of paying their devotions at the Holy Land. 



From these facts and observations we cannot but behold the great im- 

 portance of lim^ in the construction of the animal frame, the extensive use 

 which is made of it, and the variety of purposes to which it is applied : com- 

 bined in different proportions with gluten and albumen it affords equally 

 fhe means of strength and protection, produces the bones within and the 

 .shells without, the external and internal skeleton, and is discoverable in 



