diamond-bearing
deposit, during my visits to the Diamond Fields in 1884 and 1885. I
then thought that the filling of the pipes was due to aqueous rather
than igneous agencies, possibly to something in the nature of mud
volcanoes.
The Genesis of the Diamond
The
chemical composition of the diamond has long been determined, at least
approximately. Sir Isaac Newton conjectured it to be of vegetable
origin and combustible, but it was not until 1694 that Newton's
assumption of its combustibility was actually proved by the famous
burning glass experiment of the academicians of Cimento, at the
prompting of the Grand Duke Cosmo III.
Lavoisier,
Guyton de Morveau, and others practically determined, later, that the
burning of a diamond with a free supply of oxygen converted it into
carbon dioxide ; and, finally, the experiments of Sir Humphry Davy, in
1816, showed that the diamond was almost entirely pure carbon. Davy's
conclusions
1 See Appendix VII.
