ARTIFICIAL PEARLS 
323 
professorate; if I had kept to the golden practice, I 
should have well provided for my family.” 
It was under these circumstances that in 1761 he 
gladly received a letter from Colonel Baron C. Funck, 
President of the State Committee on Economy and 
Commerce, in which he was informed that the pearl 
fisheries of the kingdom were under consideration. 
In his reply Linne stated that he had heard of people 
who made gold, but had never heard of any who were 
able to make pearls, but he knew the art, and could 
readily impart the simple procedure. He had busied 
himself with the problem since his visit to Purkijaur 
during his Lapland journey, though he had no 
opportunity of experimenting with the true pearl 
mussels, only using lake mussels, but even with these, 
he had produced beautiful pearls. In 1748 he had 
communicated with Haller and Harleman, but the 
latter had cooled his ardour by saying he must not 
expect help from any future government in the 
production of pearls, for as soon as the secret art 
became known, as no reliance could be placed on the 
officials, they would fall in value. 
The Committee before mentioned not taking the 
same view, called Linne to a meeting in the following 
July, when under promise of secrecy, he described 
his procedure. It was to bore a small hole in the 
shell, and introduce a small round object of plaster of 
Paris or uncalcined limestone, attached to a silver 
wire and then fastened to the shell. Round the intro¬ 
duced body the pearl substance was deposited, and 
after five or six years, one had true pearls as large as 
peas. Finally he showed five mussel shells thus 
treated, and also nine pearls thus produced. These 
had been tested by a jeweller who found them to be 
quite beautiful, and of especial quality. The Com¬ 
mittee reported, and recommended a national reward 
to Linne of 12,000 dalers in silver [^900]. A 
sympathetic reception was accorded to this report, 
less with regard to the economic gain, than for the 
