TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ORGANIC COMPONENTS IN MOTHER-OF-PEARL

Abstract

Replicas were prepared from mother-of pearl (inner shell surfaces, splinters of fracture, polished material) of a cephalopod, of 2 gastropods and of 6 pelecypods, before and after etching by chelation, and examined by electron microscopy. Corrosion revealed organic sheets running as continuous formations between adjacent mineral lamellae,and separating the individual crystals of aragonite aligned in rows in each lamella. A reticulated structure, detected in the interlamellar sheets, exhibited a lace-like pattern, different in the various species studies, and closely similar to that reported previously in the corresponding species (Gregoire, Duchateau and Florkin 1955) in leaflets of decalcified mother-of-pearl dissociated by ultrasonic vibrations.