322 PRECIOUS STONES.
signify
the Diamond,) is more lately known to denote the Loadstone, or Magnet.
" If an Adamant," told Bartholomew Anglicus, 1250, (On the Properties of Things), "
be set by iron it suffereth not the iron to come to the magnet, but it
draweth it by a manner of violence from the magnet, so that, though the
magnet draweth iron to itself, the Adamant draweth it away from the
magnet." " This is called a precious stone of reconciliation, and of
love. For if a woman be away from her housebond, or trespasseth against
him, by virtue of this stone, she is the sooner reconciled to have
grace of her husband."
AMBER.
Amber, "
Succinum "—though neither a mineral, nor a gem, but actually a
resin,—is nevertheless worked by the lapidary, and the jeweller, so as
to serve for personal ornamentations, and for utilitarian purposes akin
to the same object. Moreover, Amber is eminently endowed with remedial
virtues, and medicinal properties, so much so indeed as to
unquestionably merit explicit present notice at our hands.
This
familiar substance is a fossilised resin, (thought to be derived from
an extinct species of pine), being found in irregular masses, without
cleavage, and possessing a resinous waxy lustre, which varies in
colour from transparent to opaque. Amber is composed chemically of
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, (i.e., lime), alumina, and silica
(flint). It is found in abundance on the Prussian Coast of the Baltic,
from Dantzic to Menel, also on the Coast of Denmark, in Sweden, Norway,
Poland, Switzerland, and in France. It occurs likewise embedded in
clay, on the coasts of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
