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Beryl is one of the gem stones that has been known from ancient times. The term Smaragdus of the old writers included Beryl and its green varieties amongst many other green stones, and Pliny's Beryllus was almost certainly this mineral. It is probable that the Beryl of Aaron's Pectoral was also our Beryl. Pliny further mentions that the gem came solely from India, and that the blue-green kind (Aquamarine) was the most prized. The name is said to be derived from a Low Latin word meaning a lens, possibly on account of the Romans cutting their transparent gems with curved surfaces in many cases, though they are reputed to have cut the Beryl in the form of a low six-sided pyramid, guided possibly by the natural form of the crystal termination. It was reputed to be a cure for diseases of the eye, possibly on account of the well-known soothing effect of green light. It would appear that someone, endowed with a more exact power of reasoning than many of his contemporaries, who was wearing an Emerald or Beryl on account of its reputed value in eye affections, found that he could really see better with his Beryllus, which was probably cut with two curved surfaces so as to be a meniscus, thinner in the centre than at its periphery, and rightly attributed the effect to the shape of the stone and not to its kind, and thus led to the correction of
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