Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/43

 12 S. II. JULYS, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

37

estate passed to Susan, Marchioness of Waterford, daughter of his favourite child, Lady Tyrconnel.

See Murray's ' Handbook for Durham and Northumberland,' s. 'Ford Castle,' and 'The History of Northumberland,' by Cadwallader J. Bates, 'Ford Castle and the Herons.'

ALFRED GWYTHER.

Windham Club.

CLEOPATRA AND THE PEARL (12 S. i. 128, 198, 238, 354, 455). In his ' Pearls and Pearling Life,' 1886, p. 284, Mr. Edwin W. Streeter gives Pliny's story of Cleopatra's pearl (Plin., ' Hist. Nat.,' ix. 58), observing afterwards :

"A sceptical age is disposed, not without good reason, to cast doubt upon all the old stories of Pearl drinking. Barbot, the French jeweller, having macerated a Pearl in the strongest vinegar, found that the outer layer was reduced to a gelatinous condition, while the deeper part of the Pearl remained unaffected." P. 284.

Mr. Streeter tells (p. 287) the story of how Sir Thomas Gresham, having laid a wager with the Spanish ambassador, drank a pearl. He " exhibited it to the am- bassador, and then ground it, and drank the powder of it." The story is taken from Lawson's ' History of Banking.'

Evidence of the belief that the pearl could be dissolved appears in ' Traict6 Familier de 1'Exacte Preparation Spagyrique des Medica- -mens, pris d'entre les Mineraux, Animaux & vegetaux,' by Joseph du Chesne, Paris, 1624, p. 37 :

" You dissolve by proper (vraye) solution pearls with the above given liquid solvent (menstrue) ; in default of which you will use some acid liquid solvent alcoholized, with a sufficient quantity of pirit of wine also alcoholized, even juice of lemon and of barberry, depurated, filtered, and suitably prepared."

The first above -given liquid solvent (le may dissolvant) is called " le menstrue [sic] celeste." It is sa,id to ba the true sol- vent of all precious stones, so as to draw their essence from them. It softens and dissolves the diamond. The writer goes on to say that he passes by the diamond anc 1 the ruby because they ere stones of great price, and ought not to be sought after unless for kings only.

It appears that, according to this spagyrist the processes given would dissolve not only pearls, but also diamonds and rubies !

In ' Polygraphice,' by William Salmon Professor of Physick, Jiving at the Blew Balcony by Fleet-Ditch, near Holborn- Bridge, London, fifth edition, 1685, " Liber Sextus, containing the 112 Arcanums o: Peter John Faber, a most Eminent and

Learned Professor of Physick," chap. Ixxxiii., )thcrv. isc p. .")'.:{, is how 'To prepan- ;m Elixir from Pearl.' The process is very

elaborate. Some of the details may be

worth quoting :

i. Take Golden or Silver coloured Pearls, as many as you please, powder them, and mix them with an equal! quantity of Sulphur Vive.

ii. Calcine them in a Crucible with a strong fire .uitill the sulphur be consumed ; then add new, but not so much as before, and calcine it as formerly.

iii. Increase the fire, and make the Crucible red hot, for four or six hours ; then let it cool, take out the matter, and beat it small.

iv. Put it into a Retort, lute it well all over, and distill in a strong tire, that all the Acid .Sulphureous Spirits may come forth, which are to be received in a Vessel half full of May- Dew.

v. When all the Spirit is come over, break the Retort, and take out the Matter, powder it and expose it to the cold air for a night, &c.

ix. And in a Glass well stopt, with a gentle fire digest the Solution, then filter it, and upon the remaining undisaolved matter, put more Acid Spirits.

x. Dissolve by digesting and filter the Solution ; this do, till the greater part of the matter prepared from the Pearls be dissolved.

xxiii. And the true way according to the Chymical Art is here most faithfully delivered, if you understand the way of calcining, dissolving, distilling, and such other Chymical operations.

xxiv. For these things are absolutely necessary for you to know, that you may separate from the Spirit all fseculential Impurities, the dross or Lees of the Elements.

xxv. This being thus perfected, there remains nothing at last to be done, but only to digest.

The next chapter is headed ' To make small Pearls into great ones' :

i. Take of the least yet clearest and brightest Pearls, what quantity you please, dissolve them in our acid Spirit, or in water of Mercury, distilled twelve times over or more, till it is sweet and

ii. In this water I say, dissolve your Pearls in a Glass, which stop well, and put it over a gentle

iii. When all your Pearls are dissolved, filter the solution and purify it, and distill in a gentle Balneo.

These are the first three of the seventeen instructions in the chapter.

It appears that in the seventeenth century, at all events, the process of dissolving a pearl was regarded as difficult and v. ry elaborate, and that later an expert, using the strongest vinegar, failed in his experiment.

Assuming the truth of Pliny's story, there ere, I think, two possible explanations:

First, that the so-called pearl was a substitute, made of materials which would easily dissolve, or, second, that Cleo]>.ura