pearl (perl)

[ "enula, pærl," where enula is uncertain); = D. parel, paarl, peerle = MLG. parle, perle, perl in = OHG. perula, perala, perl a, berala, berla, MHG. berle, G. perle = Icel. perl a = Sw. perl a = Dan. perle; = OF. perle, pelle, F. perle = Pr. Sp. perl a = Pg. perola, perl a = It. perl a; see pearl. Cf. Sp. perilla, a little pear, a pear shaped ornament, Olt. perolo, a little button or ta el (Florio). Cf. purl2.] 1. A nacreous concretion, or separate ma of nacre, of hard, smooth, lustrous texture, and a rounded, oval, pear-shaped, or irregular figure, secreted within the shells of various bivalve mollusks as a re sult of the irritation caused by the presence of some foreign body, as a grain of sand, within the mantle-lobes. The formation of a pearl is an abnormal or morbid proce , comparable to that by which any foreign body, as a bullet, may become encysted in animal ti ues and so cease to cause further irritation. In the case of the mollusks which yield pearls, the deposition is the same substance as the nacre which lines shell, hence called mother - of - pearl, in succe ive layers upon the offending particle. Fine pearls have frequently been found in working the mother-of-pearl shell. Chemi cally, pearls consist of calcium carbonate interstratified acids or destroyed by heat. The chief sources of the supply of pearls are the pearl-oysters and pearl-mu els, Aviculidæ and Unionidæ, and foremost among the former is the pearl-oyster of Indian seas, Meleagrina marg a ritifera. Pearls are generally of a satiny, silvery, or bluish-white color, but also pink, copper-colored, purple, yel. low, gray, smoky-brown, and black. The finest white pearls are from Ceylon, the Persian Gulf, Thursday Island, and the western coast of Australia. The yellow are from Panama. The finest black and gray pearls are obtained in the Gulf of California, along the entire coast from Lower California to the lower part of Mexico. There are two distinct va rieties of pink pearl: those from the common conch-shell, Strombus gigas, of the West Indies, and those from the unios or fresh mu els found in Scotland, Germany, France, and the United States (the finest being obtained principally from Ohio, Tenne ee, Kentucky, Texas, and Wisconsin), also from the small marine shell Trigon a pectonensis of Australia. Purple, light-blue, and black pearls are found in the common clam, Venus mercena ria. The yellow color of Oriental pearls generally results from the decomposition of the mollusks in which they are found. The value of a pearl depends entirely on its perfection of form (which must be either round, pear shaped, or a perfect oval), on its luster or "orient," and on the purity of its color, a tint of yellow or gray detracting very much from the value. Pearls are sold by the pearl-grain, four grains equaling one carat. (See carat, n., 4.) From 1880 to 1890 the demand for pearls and the rarity of their occurrence resulted in an advance in price of from 250 to 300 per cent., the larger pearls having advanced ones. 4344 to 5 points, and is so distinguished in the new system of sizes. This line is printed in pearl . 7. In her.: ( a ) A small ball argent, not only as a bearing but as part of a coronet. (b) The color white.-8. One of the bony tubercles which form a rough circle round the base of a deer's antler, called collectively the bur. You will carry the horns back to London, and you will discourse to your friends of the span, and the pearls of the antlers, and the crockets! W. Black, Prince of Thule, xxv. pearlin They [comfits] will be whiter and better if partly pearl ed one day and finished the next. Workshop Receipts , 2d ser., p. 162. The [rice-cleaning) machinery is shown at work, and includes the whole proce of cleaning, brightening, and Sci . Amer ., N. 8., LVII. 212. pearling the rice. II. in trans. 1. To resemble pearls. [Rare.] Her long loose yellow locks lyke golden wyre, Sprinckled with perle, and perling floweres atweene. Spenser , Epithalamion, 1. 155. 2. To take a rounded form, as a drop of liquid: as, quicksilver pearls when dropped in small quantities.-3. To a ume a resemblance to pearls, or the shape of pearls, as barley or comfits. Put some of the prepared comfits in the pan, but not too Workshop Receipts , 2d ser., p. 102 9. In entom ., a name of many pyralid moths; any pearl-moth.-10. A fish, the prill or brill: perhaps so called from the light spots, other- wise probably a transposed form of prill . [Prov. Eng.] -11. Eccles ., a name sometimes given to a particle of the consecrated wafer: still current in the Oriental Church.-12. A name given by gilders and manufacturers of ing it to extreme fluidity, and then pouring it into cold water. The stream in pouring should be so small, and the crucible held at such a distance of potash. See potash . drops (pearls) before reaching the water, which instantly cools them. The cooled granules are usually pear-shaped. The epithet granulated is more commonly applied in the United States to metals prepared in this way, as granu lated copper, silver, zinc, etc., used in the preparation of jewelers' alloys on account of their convenience in weigh- ing, and for other purposes - pure granulated zinc being much employed by chemists for generating pure hydrogen gas, as in Marsh's test for arsenic, etc. 13. In lace- and ribbon - making , one of the loops which form the outer edge. Also purl .-14. In decorative art. See purl . - Baroque pearl. See ba- roque . - Blind pearls, irregular, lusterle , and valuele pearls, used for medicinal purposes in the East.- Epi- thelial pearls, small spheroidal ma es of flattened epi- thelial scales, concentrically arranged, occurring in epi- theliomata. Also called bird's -nest bodies and epidermic spheres.-Half pearls, pieces cut from pearls that are from the water, that metal will break The value of a pearl larger than one grain was estimated by squaring its weight and multiplying this by the value of a one-grain pearl: thus, a two-grain and a five-grain pearl were worth respectively 4 and 25 times the value-of a one-grain pearl. Perles many, A man shold not finde nawhere more fine; Precyous rich were, of huge medicine. Rom . of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 4506. Hir steraps were of crystalle clere, And all with perelle ouer bygone. many at a time, as it is difficult to get them to pearl alike. pearl a ceo us (per-lā'shius), a. [Also perl a ceo us; pearl-barley (perl bär li), n. [Appar. tr. of F. orge perlé, 'pearled barley, which is appar. an accom. of orge pelé, 'pilled barley' (Cotgrave), i. e. peeled barley: see peell, pill2.] See barley1. pearl-bearing (perl baring), a. Producing pearls, as a pearl-mu el or pearl-oyster; margaritiferous.