M Y T 
to the /hells, feem t Q Be produced by fimilar extravafation, 
into the cavity of the /hell. Thofe compaft ones, fixed 
©ccafioned by the friction of fome roughnefs on the in- 
fide of the /hell, Thefe and the pearl-like nodes have a 
different afpe< 5 t from the pearls, and are of a darker and 
bluer colour. In one of the former we found a pretty 
large true oval pearl, of a very clear water, while the 
node itfelf was of a dark-blui/h colour. The yellow or 
gold-coloured pearl is the molt efteemed by the natives : 
fome have a bright red lu/tre ; others are grey or blacki/h, 
without any fliining appearance, and of no value. Some¬ 
times, when the grey lamella of a pearl is taken off, under 
it is found a beautiful genuine one ; but it oftener hap¬ 
pens that, after having (eparated the firft coat, you find 
a worthlefs impure pearl. We tried feveral of them, tak¬ 
ing one lamella off after another, and found clear and 
impure by turns : and in an impure pearl we met with 
one of a clear water, though in the centre of all we found 
a foreign particle. The largeft and moft perfect pearl 
which we faw during our flay at Condatchy, was about 
the Aze of a fmall piitol-bullet, though we have been told 
that Alice our departure many others of the fame Aze have 
been found. The /'potted and irregular ones are fold 
cheap, and are chiefly ufed by the native phyflcians as an 
ingredient in their medicines. 
We may judge with greater or lefs probability by the 
appearance of the pearl (hells, whether they contain pearls 
or not. Thofe that have a thick calcareous cruft upon 
them, to which zoophytes of various kinds are faftened, 
have arrived at their full growth, and commonly contain 
the belt pearls; but thole that appear fmooth,.contain 
either none, or only fmall ones. 
The art of forcing /hell-rilh to produce pearls was 
known, in the firft centuries of the Chriftian era, to the 
inhabitants of the coafts of the Red Sea, as we are told by 
the philofopher Apollonius, (Philoftrat. in Vita Apollon, 
lib. iii. c. 57.) who thought that circumftance worrhy of 
particular notice. The Indians dived into the fea, after 
they had rendered it calm, and perhaps clearer, by pour¬ 
ing oil into it. They then enticed the fifh by means of 
fome bait to open their /hells ; and, having pricked them 
with a /harp-pointed inftrument, received the liquor that 
flowed from them, in fmall holes made in an iron vefiel, 
in which they hardened into real pearls. Olearius fays, 
that this account is to be found in no other author ; but 
it has at leaft been copied by Tzetzes, whole words may 
in fome meafure ferve as an explanation. (Tzetzes Va¬ 
riorum, lib. ii.) We are as yet too little acquainted with 
fhell-fi/h to be able to determine, with certainty, how 
much truth there really may be in this relation ; but we 
have great reafon to conjecture from it, that the people 
who lived on the borders of the Red Sea were then ac¬ 
quainted with the method of forcing /heil-fi/h to produce 
pearls; and, as the arts in general of the ancient Indians 
have been preferved without much variation, the procefs 
employed by the Chinefe at prelent, to caufe a certain 
kind of mufcles to form pearls, feems to confirm the ac¬ 
count given by Philoftratus. In the beginning of the 
fumnier, at the time when the mufcles repair to the fur- 
face of the water and open their (hells, five or fix /mail 
beads, made of mother-of-pearl, and ftrung on a thread, 
are thrown into each of them. At the end of a year, 
when the mufcles are drawn up and opened, the beads are 
found covered with a pearly cruft, in fuch a manner, that 
they have a perfeil refemblance to real pearls. The truth 
of this information cannot be doubted, though fome ex¬ 
periments made in Bohemia lor the fame purpofe were not 
attended with fuccels. It has been confirmed by various 
perlons ; and it is very probable, that fome operations and 
fecrets, without which the procefs would prove fruitlefs 
even in China, may be unknown to the Europeans. Be- 
Ades, many obfervations are known, which feem to /how 
the poffibility of fuch aneffefil being produced. Profe/lor 
Fabricius fays, that he law in the polfe/lion of fir Joleph 
Banks* at London, large chamae, brought from. China, in 
Hus, 4$i 
which there were feveral bits of iron wire, incrufted with 
a fubftance of a perfect pearly nature. Thefe bits of wire, 
he faid, had been lharp; and it appeared as if the mulcles,’ 
to fecure themlelves againft the points of the wire, had 
covered them with this fubftance, by which means they 
had been rendered blunt. May not therefore the procefs 
employed by the ancients be ftiil prafiifed ? and may not 
thefe bits of wire have been the dime as thofe fpikes ufed 
by the people in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea for 
ricking mufcles, and which perhaps (lipped from the 
ands of the Chinefe workmen, and remained in the ani¬ 
mals ? See Mva, p. 4.28. 
The invention therefore of Linnaeus cannot be called 
altogether new. That great man informed the king and 
council in the year 1761, that he had dilcovered an art by 
which mulcles might be made to produce pearls, and he 
offered to difclofe the method for the benefit of the king¬ 
dom. This however was not done ; but he difpofed of his 
fecret to one Bagge, a merchant at Gottenburg, for the 
ftm of eighteen thoufand copper dollars, which make 
about rive hundred ducats. In the year 1780, the heirs of 
this merchant wi/hed to fell to the higheft bidder the 
fealed-up receipt; but whether the paper was purchafed, 
or who bought it, we do not know; for profetfor Retzius 
at Lund, of whom we enquired refpefiing it, could notin- 
form us. Dr. Stover, in his Life of Linnaeus, vol. i. p. 360, 
fays that the manufeript containing this fecret is in thb 
po/l'effion of Dr. J. E. Smith, in England. In the year 
1763, it was faid in the German newfpapers, that Lin¬ 
naeus was ennobled on account of this difcovery, and that 
he bore a pearl in his coat of arms; but both thefe affer- 
tions are falfe, though profeffor Fabricius conjeftures that 
the firft may be true. Linnaeus received his patent of no¬ 
bility, which, together with his arms, we have feen, in the 
year 1756, conlequently long before he faid any thing re- 
fpefting that dilcovery, of which the patent does not 
make the leaft mention. What in his arms has been 
taken for a pearl, is an egg, by which Mr. Tilas, whofe 
bulinefs it then was to blazon the arms of ennobled fa¬ 
milies, meant to reprefent all nature, after the manner of 
the ancient Egyptians. The arms are divided into three 
fields, each ot which, by the colour which forms the 
ground, expreffes one of the kingdoms of Nature ; the 
red fignifying the animal, and the green the vegetable. 
See. Over the helmet, by way of creft, is placed the 
Linnasa plant; that beautiful little moth, the Plialama 
linneella, fiiining with its filvery colours, is difplayed 
around the border inftead of feftoons ; and below is the 
following motto, “ Famam extendere faftis.” Linnaius 
once (bowed us, among his colleftion of (hells, a fmall 
box filled with pearls, and faid, “ Hos uniones confeei 
artijicio meo ; Junt tantum quinque annorum , et tamen tain 
mdgni. Thefe pearls I made by my art, and though 
fo large, they are only five years old.” They were de- 
pofired on the Mya margaritiferae, from which moft of 
the Swediih pearls are procured; and the foil, who was 
however not acquainted with his father’s fecret, faid the 
experiments were made only on this kind of mufcle 
though Linnaeus himfelf affured us that they would fucceed 
on all kinds. See the article Linn^us, vol. xii. p. 756. 
That pearls are produced when the /hells have been 
pierced or injured in a certain manner, is highly proba¬ 
ble, and has been in modern times often remarked. It 
appears alfo, that the animal has the power of fometimes 
filling up fuch openings with a calcareous fubftance 
which it depofits in them.. This fubftance affumes the 
figure of the orifice, and the animal particles it contains 
give it its brightnefs and luftre. Pearl-filhers have lone; 
known that mufcles, the /hells of which are rough and 
irregular, or which exhibit marks of violence,, commonly 
contain pearls, though they are found alio in others in 
which the fame appearances are not obferved. We are 
perfectly aware alio, that experiments which fome have 
made by piercing the (hells of mufcles, have been unfuc- 
cefsful; but this does not prove that it is impoffible to 
1 procure 
