matrix,
and lead to the production of Pearls. "These (eggs) are fed by the
oyster against her will, and they do grow according to the length of
time into Pearls of different bignesses, and imprint a mark both on the
fish and the shell." This curious bit of information was obtained from
a certain Dane, named Henricus Arnoldi, described as " an ingenious and
veracious person," who had himself studied the subject in Christiania ;
" and with great seriousness," says the writer, "assured me of the
truth thereof."
The
famous Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, or Carl Von Linné, paid much
attention to the Pearl-mussels of the rivers of Sweden, and about the
middle of the last century, devised a plan for inducing the artificial
production of Pearls, by the insertion of a foreign body into the shell
of the mollusc. Believing that his process might be profitably carried
out, he offered, in 1761, to sell his secret to the government, but his
proposal was not entertained ; and it is recorded that he afterwards
disposed of it to a merchant of Gothenburg, named Bagge, for the sum of
18,000 copper dollars. It seems, however, that no attempt was ever
seriously made to found an industry of this curious character in
Sweden. "In the year 1763," says Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, " it was said in the German newspapers that Linnaeus was ennobled on
