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Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond

Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
46
NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
the native Diamonds, exhibits an octahedral Diamond attached to alluvial gold ; and, strange confirmation of the ancient idea as their affinity, not only is the primary crystal of that metal also the octahedron, but all its secondary modifications exactly correspond with those of the Dia­mond. Modern science has made no further advance towards the solution of this problem beyond that propounded as a certainty in the ancient 'Timœus.' Prof. Maskeleyne observes : " Gold seems in every diamond-country to be either the associate or the not distant neighbour of the Diamond. In the Diamond, splinters of ferruginous quartz have been found. A high antiquity, and an origin perhaps contemporaneous and not improbably connected with the geological distribution of gold in quartz-veins may be inferred from these facts." " In Brazil it has been traced to its rock-home in the Itacolumite (a micaceous quartzose schist often containing talcose minerals, and intersected by quartz-veins) and also in a hornblende, also continuous with the Itacolumite. But whether these are the parent rocks—or whether, as they are probably meta-morphic in nature—its origin comes from an earlier state of the materials that have been transmuted by time and the play of chemical and physical forces into Itacolumite and hornblende slate, we are not in a position to declare." The Romans, taught by the Indians no doubt, valued this gem entirely on account of its supernatural virtues. Pliny,
Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond
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