As though to make amends to the Queen Gem for such disadvantageous rumors, considerable publicity has recently been given to a report that, in the Musée de Monaco, there was a luminous pearl whose beauties were revealed by an inner light, so that darkness had no power to dim its lustre. In a thoroughly impartial spirit, the writer went to the fountain-head for information in this matter, and received as answer from the director of the museum that there was no such pearl in the collection and that he had absolutely no faith in the luminosity of pearls. As has been seen, both of these legends must be set aside as false, and we fear there is just as little truth in a report that a genuine “pearl-powder” is now used by the fair ladies of Paris and by their numerous imitators. The story goes that the Arab workmen engaged in pearl-piercing in India are noted for the clearness—we can hardly say, the lightness—of their complexions, and that this is supposed to be attributable to the fact that, when resting from their difficult task, they are in the habit of taking up some of the pearl-dust that has fallen on the floor and rubbing their faces with it. As the conditions under which these men work are eminently unsanitary, those who noted the clearness and smoothness of their complexions came to the conclusion that there must be something especially beneficial in pearl-dust, and brought the matter to the notice of a French chemist. The latter proceeded to utilize the suggestion and compounded a new cosmetic. He did not, however, pin his faith to the pearl-dust alone, but wisely added a number of other ingredients. Still another mythical tale in reference to pearls has to be refuted. For some time past numerous specimens of a so-called “cocoanut-pearl” have been brought from the East. These are very white pearls, resembling in hue the hard meat of the cocoanut, and said to have been produced in the cocoanut, just as other pearls are produced in certain species of mollusks. However, the writer has always found them to be pearls secreted by the gigantic mollusk _Ostrea Singapora_. A strange poetic fancy regarding the transmutation of parts of the human form into gems of the sea appears in Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s “Tempest”: Full fathom five thy father lies, Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes, Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rare and strange. _Tempest_, Act I, Sc. ii.