From the Sigma Xi daily email newsletter/New York Times.
Marian E Havlik
Malacological Consultants
1603 Mississippi Street
La Crosse, WI 54601-4969
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SOME PEARLS OF WISDOM AND DELIGHT
Art Review from The New York Times

On the subject of pearls, ancient Romans held them to be the frozen tears of
oysters or the gods. Greeks attributed pearls to lightning strikes at sea.
Then there was the dew theory, espoused in the first century A.D. by the
learned but often fanciful Roman Pliny the Elder, who wrote:

"When the genial season of the year exercises its influence on the animal,
it is said that, yawning, as it were, it opens its shell, and so receives a
kind of dew, by means of which it becomes impregnated; and that at length it
gives birth, after many struggles, to the burden of its shell, in the shape
of pearls, which vary according to the quality of the dew."

Today science has identified the true organic origins of pearls but without
diminishing their ineffable allure. Science can indeed be said to have
opened our minds to the pearl as a modern parable. In a pearl we see
nature's capacity to deal with a chronic irritant in a way that brings forth
a thing of beauty. Pearls, you see, are the resplendent creations of certain
invertebrate animals known as mollusks, one of nature's most diverse phyla.
It includes clams, oysters, mussels, scallops and snails, even octopus,
squid and the chambered nautilus. Not all of the species have a pearl-making
capability, and not all that do live up to their potential. If they did,
oyster eating would be an adventure fraught with surprise and peril.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/12/arts/design/12PEAR.html>

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