Quantcast
  We apologize for any slow response. This will be fixed before October 31st Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-gems-decorative-stones/page_103 - 2
 

Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz

Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz Page of 384 Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
94
NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
marred by a cloud of spots, as if they were filled up with their own dust " (scobe) ; an evident allusion to that porousness or granular and even bubbly texture so con­spicuous in the Jacinth. Besides, a gem so much in fashion with the ancients as our Jacinth was could not have been omitted from Pliny's list, and here alone is a description to be found at all applicable to it (lyncürium).* The same gem seems also intended by his Melichrysus, " trans­parent like pure honey shining through gold," an Indian stone, hard yet brittle. Also to the same family belongs the Xanthus (orange), "a vulgar gem in that country" (India). So unchangeable is Indian fashion, that it in our day may be adduced in support of this attribution : no stone is more common in Hindoo jewelry than the Jacinth. On the other hand, his Pontic Chryselectri, "amber-coloured, and recognisable by their lesser weight f (the Oriental Topaz being the heaviest in our scale), some ot them hard and reddish, others soft and cloudy," were no more than, the former, Cinnamon-stones, the latter, Rock-crystals, variously tinged with yellow, orange, or brown (Rauch-Topaz—Cairn-gorum). Their exact nature is settled by the fact quoted from Bocchus as to the magnitude of one, found in the Crystal-mines in Spain, which weighed twelve pounds ; a sufficient proof that he is speaking here of those smoked Crystals, often improperly called European Topazes, which sometimes attain an incredible size : although we must accept with certain reservations De
* His remark that " they have now gone out of fashion for signet-stones " (tametsi exiere jam de gemmarum usu) supports this view, late Roman work never occurring on the Jacinth, all intagli upon it being either Greek or certainly anterior to Pliny's times.
t " Pontieas deprehendit levitas," a remark indicating that the ancients applied in their investigations connected with this science the principle of specific gravity, and perhaps even the hydrostatic balance of Archimedes.
Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz Page of 384 Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page