Among
the many changes in this list from that habitually followed, it will
be noted that the ruby is transferred from December to July, changing
places with the turquoise, which became the gem of December. This has
been favored on the ground that the warmer-colored gem was best adapted
for a July birth-stone, while the paler turquoise was best suited to a
winter month, when the sun's rays are feeble. The contrary, however, is
true; for it is in winter that we seek for warmth, while in the heat of
summer nothing is more grateful than coolness. This transposition is,
in effect, simply a return to the ordering of these stones in the
Polish list, which may perhaps have become popular in Europe in the
eighteenth century through Marie Leczinska, the queen of Louis XV.
Another undesirable change takes the chrysolite (peridot) from the
place it has always occupied as the gem of September, and makes of it
an alternate for August, with the sardonyx, while the sapphire,
properly the gem for April, is made the birth-stone for September. For
October neither the tourmaline nor the opal is as appropriate as the
beryl, while for June we should prefer the asteria to the moonstone as
a substitute for the pearl.
This
suggested radical change or violation cannot be permitted. The
time-honored ordering is familiar now to all who are interested in the
matter, and any change, even if one apparently for the better, is
liable to disturb the popular confidence in those who are supposed to
be familiar with the subject. Above all, there should be no
