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THE DIAMOND
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a
weight was sought in Germany, but the proposition could not be
entertained, as it was contrary to the laws in force regarding the
metric system. It is now proposed to substitute for the carat now in
use, one standard carat weight of 200 milligrammes, leaving the
metrical divisions to be acquired gradually, as the trade becomes
familiarized to the idea. On October 17, 1890, the Association of
Diamond Merchants of Amsterdam, fixed the value of the carat on a basis
of 1 kilogram = 4,875 carats, which is practically the same as the old
Amsterdam carat value.
The
origin of the word " carat" is obscure. It is said to have been derived
from " kuara" (sun) an African tree whose fruit and blossom are of a
golden color. As the bean when dried was always of about the same
weight, it was used in Shangallas, the chief market of Africa in
Galla-land south of Abyssinia, as a standard of weight for gold. Others
trace it to the " keration," a word taken from the Greek by the Romans,
which they described as the name of a very small weight or measure. An
old book says, " Monardus writeth that he saw diamonds in Bisnager
(Visnapour) that weighed one hundred and forty ceratia, and every
ceratium weighed four grains."
Mr.
Leonard J. Spencer, assistant in the Mineral Department of the British
Museum, who has made a very interesting appeal for the adoption of the
metric system, favors the theory that the word and weight are derived
from the seeds of the Ceratonia Siliqua (carob or locust tree). He
found that the seeds of this, and those of the Erythrina Corallodendron
(Linn) averaged alike in grams 0.197, but that the seeds of the lat-
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