History and Mythology of Pearls

Of all the objects employed as personal ornaments, the pearl is almost the only one that derives nothing from art. On the contrary, all attempts made to give it more value only end in deteriorating it.

Pearls were among the first substances ever employed as ornaments. As far back, indeed, as we can look into antiquity, we find them figuring in the first rank.

The Indian mythology speaks often of the pearl, and attributes its discovery to Vishnu, who searched the ocean for these ornaments to deck his daughter Pandala. The Book of Job and the Proverbs of Solomon also mention them. The accounts of ancient historians show the estimation in which pearls were held by the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Egyptians.

Everyone knows the famous story of Cleopatra, who, striving to rival the prodigality of Antony, dissolved in vinegar the pearl of one of her earrings, which had cost $706,800, and swallowed it. The possibility of this fact has been contested, but the thing is quite possible, only nothing more nauseous than the mixture can be imagined.

This experiment may possibly have been tried upon real pearls without success, but then probably the action of the acid did not last long enough. The pearl, as we have seen, is formed of carbonate of lime, and an organic substance. The vinegar easily effects a soluble combination with the carbonate of lime; but as soon as the lime of the first layer is consumed, the organic matter of a gelatinous consistence continues to envelop the pearl; and as this matter is not soluble in vinegar, nor can be attacked by it, a protection is formed around the interior layers, so that they are not reached by the corrosive liquid. But by persistence, in the end even this is penetrated, and the pearl is completely dissolved.

The passion of the Romans for pearls, like all the passions of this people, was carried to an extravagant height.

The pearl which Caesar presented to Servilia, sister of the celebrated Cato of Utica, had cost $223,200. The Empress Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, wore, in a set of ornaments composed of emeralds and pearls, the value of $1,488,000. Caligula himself, Nero, and other of those cruel men whom history is obliged to name among her Roman emperors, ornamented their buskins and strewed the furniture of their saloons with pearls. Under the influence of the ideas of which we have spoken in Part ii. pearls acquired great importance in medicine. Even in our own time they are frequently employed medicinally; and in China are chiefly valued on this account. Every year a large quantity are absorbed-generally in a dissolved state-by the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire.

By the effects of time, and of external agencies, pearls lose the beautiful reflections which constitute all their value; often, too, under these influences, they become more or less yellowish. There are also natural pearls, of a beautiful form and ample size, which do not exhibit these reflections, and whose colour is generally rather deep. In both cases they are called dead pearls. In this state they are of very little value, and a thousand means have been tried to give them lustre.

In certain cases the operation succeeds; in others it is a complete failure.

With great difficulty the present writer obtained a certain number of secret receipts for restoring dead pearls to their primitive lustre. In one of these concoctions there are eighty-three ingredients, each one more whimsical than the last. In another the chief ingredient is dew gathered under certain conditions, and from the leaves of certain plants. One easily traces the influence here of the idea that the ancients entertained of the origin of the pearl.

At first glance these receipts seem only to associate the most dissimilar elements, and those that could not possibly have any efficacy; but the chemist discovers in them one remarkable fact: after the complex reactions of one substance upon another, there remains always the definite results of an acid liquor.