Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1912-08-31

happens that pearls are found attached to the in
ner surface of the she'll This position inter
feres with the symmetry OF the pearl so that
when It Is taken out of the shell it is fiat on one
side, making what Is known as "perle bouton
The attached pearls are not always Of inferior
quality but are often highly valued, The world
renowned Southern Cross" which was valued at
10000 by the company to which 1t belonged, was
found at Cossack Western Australia, attached to
the central part of the inside of a she'll
When-once the nature Of pearls was understood,
1t was but natural that many experiments were
made to produce the precious objects at will. In
fact much attention has been paid to this very
problem by scientific men, and they are still at
work upon it.
It is well known that Llnnaeus the father OF
natural history, claimed that pearls could be pro-
cured by piercing holes In the shell Of oyster
with a fine auger, making a small wound. and
afterwards parking" the oysters for many years
But his suggestions do not seem to have been
clearly understood and no has been able to
pursue his method successfully The Chinese as
is well known, have been specially successful in
raising pearls by inserting grains Of clay between
the shell and the thin outer membrane which
covers the soft body Of the freshwater musse
but the best of these are OF very inferior quality,
and are valuable merely as curios
At the International Fisheries exhibition, held
in Berlin in 1880, some pearls were shown which
had been cultivated in Germany From looking
at these one could that the plain relief might
be covered with nacreous substance but the re-
suit was OF little value. Mr.. Save Kent late
naturalist to the government OF Queensland and
to that Of Western Australia undertook the same
experiment with the large pearloyster, and a
gentleman on Thursday island tried inserting a
shot through hole in the shell
The most important of such experiments are
probably those OF DR.. Louis Boutan OF Paris who
succeeded some seven years ago in producing
pearls In the abalone shell. The public was nat.
urally greatly interested, and the newspapers in
Europe and America applauded his success and
called It great discovery.
1t may perhaps come as a SUR rise to many that
before Dr. Boutan's attempts, a very extensive
and successful system Of pearloyster cultivation
had been carried ON in Japan by Mr. Mikimoto
and culture pearls had not only been produced
but placed regularly on the market Even at the
present day, it may be claimed, that this is the
only pearloyster farm in the world which under.
takes the extensive cultivation OF the precious
moilusc and produces culture pearls" on a com.
mercial scale An account Of the successful enter
prise may, therefore, be not wholly devoid OF In.
terest
At the Third National Industrial exhibition,
held In Tokyo in 1890 Mr.. MikImoto exhibited in
the aquarium OF fisheries section somo living
specimens Of the pearloyster This made him &C.
quainted with DR.. Mtsukuri. professor of zoology
at the Imperial university, who first suggested to
him the possibility OF cultlvating pearloysters
and of making them produce pearls by the use OF
proper stimuli Being deeply interested in the
subject MllSimoto went afterwards to the marine
biological station Of the Imperial university at
Visaki. where the professor was teaching. and