Pearl
weighs three ounces, has a circumference of four and a half inches; and
is surmounted by an enamelled, and jewelled gold crown.
River
Pearls are produced by the fresh-water mussels inhabiting the mountain
streams of temperate climates, in the northern hemisphere,—Scotland,
Wales, Ireland, Saxony, Bohemia, Bavaria, Lapland, and Canada. The
Pearls of Britain, as known in former times, are mentioned by Tacitus,
and by Pliny. A breast-plate studded with British Pearls was dedicated
by Julius Caesar to Venus Genitrix.
Dr. Schroder, (as we have related in our Animal Simples: 1890),
declares that these gems cure heartburnings beyond other medicines,
and are the chief of all cordial medicaments ; " the crude powder,"
says he, " is, in my opinion, much beyond the salt of magistery."
"
In the salt, or magistery of Pearls," wrote Dr. Fuller—" Body of
prescripts" : 1710, "though vinegar is ordered by the London College as
a dissolvent, yet we know by experience that juyce of limons, or spirit
of sulphur, dissolves them much better and easier." Their first
Pharmacopoeia was written in Latin, (1696), being dedicated to Gault
Charleton, M.D., President of the College of Physicians. It was further
styled Bateana, and included the Arcana Goddardiana of Jonathan Goddard, M.D.
Imitation
Pearls are small spheres blown on tubes of slightly opalescent glass,
and coated internally with a preparation made from the silvery scales
of the bleak, roach, and similar small fish; this preparation being
known as "Essence d'Orient." The little opalescent globe first
receives, while still soft, a
20
