Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/470

448 P E A P E A the mountain-streams of temperate climates in the northern hemi sphere, especially in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Saxony, Bohemia, Bavaria, Lapland, and Canada. The pearls of Britain are men tioned by Tacitus and by Pliny, and a breastplate studded with British pearls was dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus Genetrix. As early as 1355 Scotch pearls are referred to in a statute of the goldsmiths of Paris ; and in the reign of Charles II. the Scotch pearl trade was sufficiently important to attract the attention of parliament. Writing in 1705, John Spruel says, " I have dealt in pearls these forty years and more, and yet to this day I could never sell a necklace of fine Scots pearl in Scotland, nor yet line pendants, the generality seeking for Oriental pearls, because farther fetched. At this very day I can show some of our own Scots pearl as fine, more hard and transparent, than any Oriental" (An Account Current betwixt Scotland and England, Edinburgh, 1705). The Scotch pearl-fishery, after having declined for years, was revived in 1860 by a German named Moritz linger, who visited Scotland and bought up all the pearls he could find in the hands of the peasantry, thus leading to an eager search for more pearls the following season. It is estimated that in 1865 the produce of the season s fishing in the Scotch rivers was worth at least 12,000. This yield, however, was not maintained ; the rivers were over- fislied, and the industry was discouraged inasmuch as it tended to interfere with the salmon-fishery, and in some cases injured the banks of the streams. At the present time only a few pearls are obtained at irregular intervals by an occasional fisherman. The principal rivers in Scotland which have yielded pearls are the Spey, the Tay, and the South Esk ; and to a less extent the Doon, the Dee, the Don, the Ythan, the Teith, the Forth, and many other streams. In North Wales the Conway was at one time cele brated for its pearls ; and it is related that Sir Richard Wynn, chamberlain to the queen of Charles II., presented her with a Con- way pearl which is believed to occupy a place in the British crown. In Ireland the rivers of Donegal, Tyrone, and Wcxford have yielded pearls. It is said that Sir John Hawkins the circumnavigator had a patent for pearl-fishing in the Irt in Cumberland. Although the pearl-fisheries of Britain are now neglected, it is otherwise with those of Germany. The most important of these are in the forest- streams of Bavaria, between Ratisbon and Passau. The Saxon fisheries are chiefly confined to the basin of the White Elster, and those of Bohemia to the Horazdiowitz district of Wotawa. For more than two centuries the Saxon fisheries have been carefully re gulated by inspectors, who examine the streams every spring, and deteftnine where fishing is to be permitted. After a tract has been fished over, it is left to rest for ten or fifteen years. The fisher folk open the valves of the mussels with an iron instrument, and if they find no pearl restore the mussel to the water. River -pearls are found in many parts of the United States, and have been systematically worked in the Little Miami river, Warren county, Ohio. The season extends from June to October. Japan produces freshwater pearls, found especially in the Anodonta japonica,. But it is in China that the culture of the pearl-mussel is carried to the greatest perfection. The Chinese also obtain marine pearls, and use a large quantity of mother -of -pearl for decorative purposes. More than twenty-two centuries before our era pearls are enumerated as a tribute or tax in China ; and they are mentioned as products of the western part of the empire in the llh ya, a dictionary compiled earlier than 1000 B.C. A process for promoting the artificial formation of pearls in the Chinese river- mussels was discovered by Ye-jin-yang, a native of Hoochow, in the 13th century; and this process is still extensively carried on near the city of Teh-tsing, where it forms the staple industry of several villages, and is said to give employment to about 5000 people. Large numbers of the mussels are collected in May and June, and the valves of each are gently opened with a spatula to allow of the introduction of various foreign bodies, which are in serted by means of a forked bamboo stick. These matrices " are generally pellets of prepared mud, but may be small bosses of bone, brass, or wood. After a number of these objects have been placed in convenient positions on one valve, the unfortunate mollusc is turned over and the operation is repeated on the other valve. The mussels are then placed in shallow ponds connected with the canals, and are -nourished by tubs of night-soil being thrown in from time to time. After several months, in some cases two or three years, the mussels are removed, and the pearls which have formed over the matrices are cut from the shells, while the molluscs themselves serve as food. The matrix is generally extracted from the pearl and the cavity filled with white wax, the aperture being neatly sealed up so as to render the appearance of the pearl as perfect as possible. Millions of such pearls are annually sold at Soo-chow. The most curious of these Chinese pearls are those which present the form of small seated images of Buddha. The figures are cast in very thin lead, or stained in tin, and are inserted as previ ously described. As many as twenty may sometimes be seen, ranged in parallel rows, in the valves of a single individual. Covered with nacreous matter, closely adherent to the shell, they have all the appearance of natural objects, and, exciting the wonder of the ignorant, are prized as amulets. Specimens of these Buddha pearls in the British Museum are referred to the species Dipsas plicata. It should be mentioned that Linnnms, probably ignorant of what had long been practised in China, demonstrated the pos sibility of producing artificial pearls in the freshwater mussels of Sweden. Pink pearls are occasionally found in the great conch or fountain shell of the West Indies, Strombus gigas, L. ; but these, though much prized, are not nacreous, and their tint is apt to fade. They are also produced by the chank shell, Turbinclla seolymits, L. * Yellowish-brown pearls, of little or no value, are yielded by the Pinna squamosa, and bad-coloured concretions are formed by the Placuna placenta.- Black pearls, which are very highly valued, are obtained chiefly from the pearl-oyster of the Gulf of Mexico. Artificial pearls were first made in western Europe in 1680 by Jacquin, a rosary-maker in Paris, and the trade is now largely carried on in France, Germany, and Italy. Spheres of thin glass are filled with a preparation known as "essence d orient," made from the silvery scales of the bleak or "ablette, " which is caused to adhere to the inner wall of the globe, and the cavity is then filled with white wax. The scales are in some cases incorporated with celluloid. Many imitation pearls are now formed of an opaline glass of nacre ous lustre, and the soft appearance of the pearl obtained by the judicious use of hydrofluoric acid. An excellent substitute for black pearl is found in the so-called "ironstone jewellery," and consists of close-grained haematite, not too highly polished ; but the great density of the haematite immediately destroys the illusion. Pink pearls are imitated by turning small spheres out of the rosy part of the conch shell, or even out of pink coral. See W. H. Dall, " Pearls and Pearl Fisheries," in American Naturalist, xvii., 1S83, p. 549 ; P. L. Simmonds, The Commercial 1 roducts of the Sea (London, 1879) ; Clements It. Markham, "The Tinnevelly Pearl Fishery," in Journ. Soc. Arts, xv., 1867, p. 256 ; D. T. Macgowan, "Pearls and Pearl-making in China," ibid. ii., 1854, p. 72 ; F. Hague, " On the Natural and Artificial Production of Pearls in China," in Journ. ]!. Asiatic Soc., xvi., 1856 ; H. J. Le Beck, " Pearl Fishery in the Gulf of Manar," in Asiatic Researches, v., 1798, p. 393 ; T. Von Hessling, Die Perlmitschel und Hire Perlen (Lcipsic, 1859) ; K. Mo bius, Die echten 1 erlen (Hamburg, 1857). (F. W. R.) PEARSON, JoHN(1612-1686),a learned English bishop, was born at Great Snoring in the county of Norfolk, on the 28th of February 1612. After attending Eton, he entered Queens College, Cambridge, 10th June 1031, and was elected a scholar of King s in April following and a fellow in 1634. Entering holy orders in 1639, he was collated to the prebend of Nether-Avon, in the church of Sarum. In 1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord -keeper Finch, by whom he was presented to the living of Thorington in Suffolk during the same year. In 1650 he was made preacher of St Clement s, Eastcheap, in London. Seven years later he and Peter Gunning had a dispute with two Roman Catholics upon the subject of schism, a one-sided account of which was printed at Paris by one of the Roman Catholic disputants, under the title Schism Unmasked, 1658. In 1659 Pearson published at London his celebrated Exposition of the Creed, dedicated to his parishioners of St Clement s, Eastcheap, to whom the substance of that now standard work had been preached several years before, and by whom he had been desired to make it public. The same year he likewise published the Golden Remains of the ever -memorable Mr John Hales of Eton, to which he prefixed a preface con taining a character of that eminent man, with whom he had been acquainted for many years, drawn up with great elegance and force. Pearson had also a principal share in the editing of the Critici Sacri, first published in 1660. Soon after the Restoration he was presented by Juxon, then bishop of London, to the rectory of St Christopher s in that city; and he Avas also in 1660 created doctor of divinity at Cambridge, in pursuance of the king s letters mandatory, installed prebendary of Ely, archdeacon of Surrey, and made master of Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1661 he was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity 1 Strombus fjirjas, L., is a Gastropod belonging to the family Strom- bidte, of the order Azyyobranchia. Turbinella scolymns, Lam., is a Gastropod belonging to the family Muricidee, of the same order. 2 Placuna placenta, L. , belongs to the family Ostreidse of tlie manuals (family Oslracea of article MOLLUSCA) ; it is found on the shores of North Australia. J inna squamosa, Gmelin, belongs to the MytiliiJue (the Mi/tilacese of article MOLLUSCA) ; it occurs in the Medi terranean. Both are Lamellibranchs.