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NATURAL PROPERTIES.
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NATURAL PROPERTIES.
The
Diamond is highly electric, attracting light objects when heated by
friction; and alone amongst gems has the peculiarity of becoming
phosphorescent in the dark, after long exposure to the sun's rays. The
Romans attributed magnetic powers to the Diamond in a much higher
degree than to the Loadstone ; so much so that they believed the latter
was totally deprived of all its power in the presence of the Diamond ;
but this notion is quite ungrounded. Their sole idea of magnetism was
that of attraction : seeing therefore the stone possessed this for
certain objects, the step to ascribing to it a superiority in this, as
in all other respects, over the Loadstone, was easy to their lively
imaginations, unfettered by experiment. This connexion of ideas is
still preserved in the French word for Magnet, "Pierre d'Ai-mant," from
the low Latin " petra de Adamante," which in another form gives
"Diamant." The Orientals, improving upon this notion, assigned to the
Diamond a discriminating magnetism consistent with its pre-eminent
dignity; for M. Ben Mansur states, " The Diamond has an affinity for
gold, small particles of which fly towards it. It is also wonderfully
sought after by ants, which crowd over it as though they would swallow
it up."
Though
an antidote against all poisons when worn on the finger, yet during the
Middle Ages it was considered the most deadly of all if swallowed. This
is laid down as an indubitable fact by that famous physician Camillo
Leonardo, in 1504. Thus Cellini tells how his life was preserved from
the machinations of his enemy P. L. Farneso by the roguery of the
apothecary, who, being employed to pulverize a diamond intended to
season the artist's salad, substituted a bit of beryl in its stead. It
is likewise enumerated amongst the poisons administered to Sir T.
Overbury when a prisoner in the Tower. Garcias takes some pains to
overthrow this long-established opinion, by quoting instances of
slaves in the mines swallowing large diamonds, for the sake of
embezzling them, without the least injury to their stomachs: and a
woman (in a case known to him) had administered doses of diamond-dust
for many days continuously to her
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