Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1902 — THE MAKING OF PEARLS. [ARTICLE]

THE MAKING OF PEARLS.

Lustrous Gems Are Only the Tombs of Worms, —— Pearls are'file product of decay. A French naturalist says, in Cosmos, that the free pearlsdiound in the common pearl-bearing mollusk are little tombs surrounding the bodies of the marine worms known as distomes during a particular stage of their life. In the month of August certain mollusks are found having numerous small reddish-yellow points in the spot where pearls usually form. Then begins the imprisonment of the creature. In the beginning the surface of the distome is sprinkled with tiny grains of car ; bonate of lime. These granulations grow and take the form of crystals which group and interlace in different patterns, and end by forming a calcareous deposit around the creature’s body, which can still be distinguished by its yellow tint. The calcareous^deposit takes on polish and luster; and at this moment the nucleus of the young pearl is seen only as a little black point, which soon dls- : appears. The pearl has now a beautiful luster, and it keeps on growing in contact with the membranous pouch surrounding the calcareous cyst. The distome remains there until the following summer. At the beginning of the season the pearl loses its polish, I decays and falls to pieces. There may ! remain only a gelatinous inass, and these are known as gelatinous pearls. The parasite then resumes its active life, reproduces its kind, and the young distomes become in their turn encysted, forming new pearls. There are pearls that escape their physiological /ate. and may grow to larger size because their distomes are dead, killed by another parasite, or because they are sterile. So the most beautiful pearl is nothing but the brilliant tomb of a worm.