chain of emeralds and smaller pearls, and another was suspended from the neck of the peacock adorning the famous
throne. Among the treasures acquired by Saladin during his
conquests were seven hundred pearls of priceless value. The
crown jewels of France, in 1791, included fifty-three pearls,
valued at that time, altogether, at nearly one hundred and
fifty-three thousand dollars.
The finest pearl necklaces of modern times are said to
belong to the royal families of England and Germany, and to
Eugénie, late Empress of France ; the English jewel was the
gift of the East India Company to her Majesty Queen Victoria. An interesting domestic incident is related of the
imperial family of Germany, how that the empress received
from the emperor a single pearl on her first birthday after
their marriage, to which he added a new one on each succeeding anniversary, until a magnificent necklace has been formed.
The Crown Princess of Germany has a necklace composed
of thirty-two pearls, valued at nearly one hundred thousand
dollars.
The statement that the pearl has been dissolved and drunk
is equivocal. The story of the famous pearl belonging to
Cleopatra is well known, but its romance is spoiled by some
investigating chemist, who has decided that there is no acid
safe to be taken into the stomach which could dissolve this
substance. Others accept the tradition as a fact not to be
questioned, since an acid such as vinegar, they say, can
dissolve it, provided the experiment is sufficiently prolonged
On the testimony of Pliny, the practice of dissolving pearls for
a beverage was known before Cleopatra's day ; the liquor
thus formed possessed a delicious flavor, and it is said to have
constituted a favorite drink of the Emperor Claudius, at a later
period. A similar feat, rivalling in folly that of the Egyptian
