Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-08-29

haDDens 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 fat one
side, making what is known as a '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
$4,000 by the company to which it 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
it 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 still at
work upon it.
1t is we'll known that Linnaeus the father of
natural history, claimed that pearls could be pro-
cured by piercing holes in the shell of oyster
with 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 one 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 musseI,
but the best of these 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
D6 covered Win udCT6OuS substance, put the re-
suit was of little value. Mr.. SaviIIe 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 a great discovery
1t may perhaps come as surprise 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 the market Even at the
present day, it may be claimed, that this is the
only pear[Oyster farm in the world which under
takes the extensive cultivation of the precious
mollusc and produces culture pearls on a COM
mercal 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 some living
specimens of the pearl-oyster. This made him ac-
Quainted with DR.. Mttsukuri professor of zoology
at the Imperial university who first suggested to
him the possibility Of cuItvating pearl-oysters
and OF making them produce pearls by the use of
proper stimuli Being deeply interested in the
subject, Mikimoto went afterwards to the marine
biological station of the Imperial university at
Visah, where the professor was teaching, and