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Ch. 10: Diamond

Ch. 10: Diamond Page of 401 Ch. 10: Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
THE DIAMOND.                                       171
answer a good purpose, since they often lead the way to truth.
But this is not all ; they illustrate the ingenuity of the human
mind in seeking to account for the methods Nature takes for
the accomplishment of her secret operations. Some of these
theories about the origin of the diamond are very ingenious
and interesting, though the amount of truth they embody
remains to be proved. It has been suggested that the vapors
of carbon during the coal period may have been condensed and
crystallized into the diamond ; and again that itacolumite,
generally regarded as the matrix, was saturated with petroleum,
which, collecting in nodules, formed this gem by gradual
crystallization. Newton believed it had been a coagulated,
unctuous substance, of vegetable origin, and was sustained in
his theory by many eminent philosophers, including Sir David
Brewster, who believed the diamond was once a mass of gum
derived from certain species of wood, and that it subsequently
assumed a crystalline form. Dana and others advance the
opinion that it may have been produced by the slow decomposition of vegetable material, and even from animal matter.
Burton says it is younger than gold, and suggests the
possibility that it may still be in the process of formation, with
capacity for growth. Specimens of the diamond have been
found to enclose particles of gold, an evidence, he thinks, that
its formation was more recent than that of this precious metal.
The theory that the diamond was formed immediately from
carbon by the action of heat is opposed by another, maintaining
that it could not have been produced in this way, otherwise, it
would have been consumed. But the advocates of this view
were not quite on their guard against a surprise, for some
quick-witted opponent found by experiment that it will sustain
great heat without combustion.
Later opinions incline to the hypothesis that the diamond
Ch. 10: Diamond Page of 401 Ch. 10: Diamond
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