m M Y T 1 
procure pearls in that manner. Thofe who made them 
did not perhaps pierce the proper part of the (hell ; per¬ 
haps they made the orifice ip large that it weakened the 
animal; and they may not have chofen the propereft fea- 
fon of the year. The (trongeft objection, however, which 
can be made on this fubjeCt, is the undeniable truth, that 
the proper valuable pearls are not found adhering' to the Jhell, 
but in the body only; and that therefore thofe calcareous 
balls which fill up holes, cannot be perfcSb pearls. But from 
the words of Linnaeus above quoted, we are led to con¬ 
jecture, that ha only made a hole in the fhell without 
piercing it quite through. Linnaeus alfo may have done 
feme injury to the animal itfelf, when it opened its ihell. 
It appears by the TranfaClions of the Swedilh Academy, 
that fome have been of opinion that ihell-fiih might be 
made to produce pearls by a particular kind of nourifh- 
ment; and Lilter thinks that thefe excrefcences w’ould be 
more abundant, were the mufcles placed in water impreg¬ 
nated with calcareous matter; but the younger Linnaeus 
feems certain that his father employed none of thele me¬ 
thods. Beckmann's Hijl. of inventions, vol. ii. 
The perfections of pearls, whether round, in form of 
pears or olives, or irregular, confifts chiefly in the luftre 
and clearnefs of the colour, which jewellers call the water. 
There are fome whofe water is white, which are thofe moll 
elleemcd in Europe 5 the waiters of others border on the 
yellowq which fome Indians and Arabs prefer to the 
white ; others are of a lead colour; others border on 
black; and others are quite black. They are all liable 
to change with wearing: in eighty or a hundred years 
the)' ufually become of little value, efpecially the white 
ones, which often turn yellow, and fpoil in forty or fifty 
years’ time. The difference of colours, doubtlefs, arifes 
from the different parts of the mufcle in which they are 
formed. When the feed happens to be thrown into the 
mefenlery or liver, or the parts correfponding thereto, it 
3s no wonder if the impurities of the blood change the 
natural white. The oriental pearls are the finelt, on ac¬ 
count of their largenefs, colour, and beauty, being of a 
fllver white; whereas the occidental pearls feldom exceed 
the colour of milk. 
In Europe pearls are fold by the carat-weight, the carat 
containing four grains. In Alia, the weights ufed for 
pearls are different in different ftates. The value of pearls 
increafes as the fquare of their weight; thus, the price of 
a pearl of one carat being fettled at 8s. to find the price of 
a pearl w eighing fix carats ; firft, find the fquare of 6, viz. 
36 ; which multiplied by 8, gives 288 fhillings, or 14I. 8s. 
the price required. 
Pearls, F. Bouhours obferves, have this advantage over 
precious Hones dug out of rocks, See. that the latter owe 
their luftre to the induftry of men; nature' only, as it 
were, hew's them out, and leaves the finifhing of them to 
art; but the former are born with that beautiful water 
which gives them their value. They are found perfectly 
polifhed in the abylfes of the fea; and Nature has put the 
laft hand to them before they are feparated from their 
mother. 
Pearls have been ufed as ornaments from the earlieft 
ages. In the time of Job, pearls were accounted to be of 
great value. Job, ch. xxviii. v. 18. 
Pearls of unufual figures, i. e. neither round nor in the 
pear-form, are called barognas, and ours Scotch pearls: 
thofe of unufual fizes are called parangons; fuch as were 
that of Cleopatra, valued by Pliny at centies HS, or 
8o,oool. fterling; that brought in 1574 to Philip II. of 
the fize of a pigeon’s egg, valued at 14,400 ducats; that 
of the emperor Rudolph, mentioned by Boetius, called 
la peregrina, or “ the incomparable,” of the flrape of a 
pearj' and weighing thirty carats ; and that mentioned 
by Tavernier, in the hands of the emperor of Periia, in 
1633, bought of an Arab for 32,000 tomans, which, at 
jl. 9s. the toman, amounts to 110,400k fterling. 
That pearls are calcareous is inferred from Cleopatra’s 
having been able to diffolve hers in vinegar, and by thefe 
LUS, 
means to gain a wager from her lover, as we are told by 
Pliny and Macrobius. She muft, however, have employed 
ftronger vinegar than that which we ufe for our tables, 
as the pearls, on account of their hardnefs and their na¬ 
tural enamel, cannot be eafily diffolved by a weak acid. 
Cleopatra, perhaps, broke and pounded the pearls ; and 
it is probable that (Ire afterwards diluted the vinegar with 
water, that (lie might be able to drink it; though diffolved 
calx deftroys acids, and renders them imperceptible to 
the tongue. We are -told that the difiipated Clodius 
gave to each of his guefts a pearl diffolved in vinegar to 
drink; “ Ut experiretur in gloria palati,” fays Pliny, 
“quid faperent margaritse; atque ut mire placuere, ne 
folus hoc feiret, fingulos uniones convivis abforbendos 
dedit.” Horace (lib. ii. fat. 3.) fays the fame. Caligula, alfo, 
“ MargaritaspretiofiflimasacetoliquefaCfasforbebat.” Suel. 
cap. 37. That pearls ai’e foluble in vinegar is remarked 
in Paufanias, 1 . viii. c. 18. and Vitruvius, 1 . viii. c. 3. 
Mr. Bruce mentions a mufcle found in the falt-fprings 
of the Nubian defert; in many of which he found thofe 
excrefcences which might be called pearls, but all of 
them ill formed, foul, and of a bad colour, though of the 
fame confidence, and lodged in the fame part of the body, 
as thofe in the fea. “ The mufcle, too, (fays our author,) 
is in every refpeCl fimilar, I think larger. The outer 
fkin or covering of it is of a vivid green. Upon remov¬ 
ing this, which is the epidermis, what next appears is a 
beautiful pink without glofs, and feemingly of a calcare¬ 
ous nature. Below this, the mother-of-pearl, which is 
undermoft, is a white without luftre, partaking much 
of the blue and very little of the red ; and this is all the 
difference I obferved between it and the pearl-bearing 
mufcle of the Red Sea,” 
In Scotland, efpecially to the northward, in all rivers 
running from lakes, there are found mufcles that have 
pearls of more than ordinary merit, though feldom of 
large fize. They were formerly tolerably cheap; but 
lately, the wearing of real pearls coming into fafhion, 
thofe of Scotland haVe increafed in price greatly beyond 
their value, and fuperior often to the price of oriental 
ones when bought in the eaft. The reafon of this is a 
demand from London, where they are a&ually employed 
in work, and fold as oriental. But the excellency of all 
glafs or palle manufactory, it is likely, will keep the 
price of this article, and the demand for it, within bounds, 
when every lady has it in her power to wear in her ears, 
for the price of fixpence, a pearl as beautiful in colour, 
more elegant in form, lighter and eafier to carry, and as 
much bigger as (he pleafes, than the famous ones of 
Cleopatra and Servilia. In Scotland, as well as in the 
the eaft, the fmooth and perfeCt (hell rarely produces a 
pearl; the -crooked and diftorted (hell feldom wants one. 
The mother-of-pearl manufactory is brought to the 
greateft perfection at Jerufalem. The raoft beautiful 
(hell of this kind is that of the peninin already mentioned j 
but it is too brittle to be employed in any large pieces 
of workmanfliip; whence that kind uamed dora is moll 
ufually employed ; and great quantities of this are daily 
brought from the Red Sea to Jerufalem. Of thefe, a 4 
the fine w'orks, the crucifixes, the wafer-boxes, and the 
beads, are made, which are Cent to the Spanilh dominions 
in the New World, and produce a return incomparably 
greater than the ftaple of the greateft manufactory in the 
Old. 
Very little is known of the natural hiftory of the pearl- 
fifh. Mr. Bruce fays, that, as far as he has oblerved, they 
are all (luck upright in the mud by an extremity; the 
mufcle by one end, the pinna by the finall lfiarp point, 
and the third by the hinge or fquare part which projeCts 
from the round. “ In (hallow and clear ftreams ((ays 
Mr. Bruce), I have feen (mail furrows or tracks upon the 
landy bottom, by which you could trace the muicle from 
its laft ftarion ; and thele not ftraight, but deviating into 
traverles and triangles, like the couric of a (hip in a con¬ 
trary wind laid down upon a map, probably in purfuit of 
iood. 
