Τ
is strange that although Pearls have been highly valued in all ages as
objects of personal adornment, there should not exist in the English
language a single book entirely devoted to their history. There are, it
is true, many notices of Pearls—more or less complete—in various works
on Precious Stones, and in others on the Mollusca, or on the products
of the sea in general. In like manner there are numerous articles on
the subject, scattered throughout our periodical literature, or
enshrined in the proceedings of our learned societies. But the fact
remains that, so far as my knowledge extends, there exists no work in
which the subject of Pearls is treated with fulness, much less with any
approach to exhaustion, and to which the reader may confidently turn
for information on any point connected with these lovely productions of
the sea.
In the earlier editions of my work on " Precious
