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294 PRECIOUS STONES.
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"
I know," saith Magus (1801) " how to compose Coral amulets which, if
suspended even by a thread shall, (God assisting), prevent all harms
and accidents of violence, from fire, or water, and help them to
withstand all their diseases."
In the Three Ladies of London (1584)
we read, " You may say, Jet will take up a straw ; Amber will make one
fat; Coral will look pale when you be sick; and Crystal will stanch
blood."
THE PEARL.
The Pearl is
well said to be the purest, and loveliest of all gems. Its supposed
origin was long a mystery; the general modern belief concerning this
question is that some foreign body within the shell of the oyster,
(this being almost invariably the Pearl's habitat), acts as an irritant
to the mollusc, which therefore proceeds to coat over, for
self-protection, the invading offender with successive layers of
nacreous matter.
At
one time Pearls were believed to be the production of celestial dew; at
another time to be oyster eggs. But, proceeding on the theory advanced
above, Linnseus induced the Government of Sweden to give him £450, with
permission to teaze mechanically the fresh-water mussel, (a
pearl-bearing mollusc), within its shell, at his will. He did this ;
and produced pearls; but they proved far dearer than customary pearls
obtained in the natural way from the oyster.
Pearls
do not naturally appear until the oyster's fourth year ; and when
examined after being procured, they are found to be chemically nothing
but carbonate of lime, and gelatine. These substances, arranged in
successive concentric layers, like those of an onion,.
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