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CARBUNCULUS.
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CARBUNCULUS : "Ανθραξ : Ruby, and Garnet.
The modern name for this stone, Ruby, Rubino, is merely an epithet expressive of its distinctive colour, as being the Red variety
of the Hyacinthus. For, one of the inexplicable chemical enigmas of
Nature, the Ruby and the Sapphire, though differing so greatly in
appearance, are chemically the same substance, pure Alumina. For the
same reason Marbodus calls this division of the Hyacinthus "
Granatici," from their resemblance in tint to the crimson juice of the
pomegranate. This was the first "Ανθραξ of Theophrastus (18), a name signifying a live coal, because it was blood-red in colour (ερυθρός) ;
but if held up against the sun, assumed the appearance of a burning
piece of charcoal. He terms it very valuable, inasmuch as a small
ring-stone used to sell for 40 gold staters (40 guineas), a statement
which could hardly apply, in his age of high civilization and extended
commerce, to our Garnet or Carbuncle, a common stone, and produced
abundantly in many parts of Europe. The true Ruby must likewise be
included amongst the numerous species of the Carbunculus described by
Pliny (xxxvii. 25), though, as De Laet has justly observed (i. 2),
there can be no doubt that he classed under that head every kind of
red, transparent, fiery stone ; both the Ruby, the Pyrope, the
Almandine, and the Red Jacinth. One of the qualities, however, which
Pliny assigns to his Carbunculus, that of not being affected by the
fire, whence they were called "Acausti," applies exclusively to the Ruby, for the Garnet easily fuses into a dark globule of oxide of iron.
Henckel relates an experiment in which a Ruby was sufficiently softened
by means of a powerful burning-glass to receive the impression from a
Jasper intaglio, without the slightest detriment to its original colour
or hardness on its cooling. The same con-
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