Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
both sides of living nature are represented, and we can throw light
upon questions that arise from the standpoints of very varied lines
of biological investigation.
As this occasion is not only our annual business meeting, but also
our commemoration of the birthday of Linnaeus, our thoughts
naturally turn to the life and work of the great ."Swede to v\'hose
influence upon the progress of Science botanists and zoologists are
equally indebted.
It has occurred to me that you nmy be interested to hear a few
remarks upon a section ol: his work which is, I believe, little known,
but which I have had occasion recently to look into—a subject
moreover that has in itself an attraction for most men, and also
women—namely, Pearls. Considering the activity of his mind
and the wide range of his \vork, no one will be surprised to hear that
Linnaeus experimented on the formation of pearls in shell-fish, and
that he belie\ed he was able to produce valuable pearls by artificial
methods. I do not refer to the manufacture of artificial pearls,
but to the artificial stimulation of shell-fish so as to induce them
to produce by the natural process real pearls in increased number
or at an unusual time or place. AVith such an object in vie\^-, it
is necessary to enquire first how pearls are naturally produced in
shell-fish. One of the Linnean manuscripts which I shall have to
tell you of presently states:— "It is certain that nature ])roduces
pearls every day, and if anyone be able to steal from her this
knowledge, it can only be he whom she has admitted into her
interior and most sacred places." Linnaeus had better grounds
than anyone else of his time for considering himself as so
privileged.
There is an early Hindu belief that at night or during heavy rain
the Pearl Oysters ascend to the surface of the sea, open their
shells to the air and take in drops of fresh water which become
consolidated as pearls.
Pjiuy and other classical writers record the similar belief that
pearls are caused by drops of dew which enter the gaping shell
when uncovered with \\ ater. A more poetic form is that they are
due to the tears of the Nereids, or as Moore has it in ' Peri and
the Pearl ' :—
" And precious the tear as that raiu from the sky
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea."
Colombus, we are told, was convinced he had found the locality
for Orient pearls when he reached a spot where the trees grew
down into the sea and had their roots covered with oysters gaping
ready to receive the dew drops from the leaves above.
iEliau, on the other hand, thought the pearls were formed by
a lightning-flash entering the opening shell ; and many other
writers since have speculated as to mysterious pathological
effusions, as to displaced OA'a, as to similarity to calculi and to
galls, and as to calcification of deposits round sand-grains, algae,