MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 53
(in Greek ion). The most striking peculiarity of the lychnis was its power to attract straws or bits of paper, when it had been heated by the sun's rays or by hand-friction.90
Such
is the confusion in the statements made by the early Greek and Latin
writers as to the emerald, under which generic name they seem to have
included almost all green stones of any ornamental or other value, that
we cannot absolutely reject the conjecture91 that Theophrastus (third century b.c.), the earliest of these writers on precious stones, might have
referred to specimens of green tourmaline, when he states that the true
emerald appeared to have been produced from jasper, as one of the
Cyprian specimens was said to have consisted of one-half jasper and the
other half emerald, the metamorphosis as yet being incomplete.92
"We admit that if Theophrastus uses the word jasper here to signify the
reddish variety, we would have the combination of green and red zones
in a single crystal sometimes observable in tourmaline. How this can be
reconciled with the previous statement of the same author that the
Cyprian "emeralds" which came from the copper mines of that island were
chiefly used for soldering gold, and hence seem to have been of the
class of mineral called chrysocolla by ancient writers, is, however, not^asy to suggest.93
The
so-called Brazilian emeralds mentioned by the Dutch mineralogist,
Johann de Laet, as having been found shortly before 1647 in mines near
Spiritus Sanctus, may perhaps have been green tourmalines. These
crystals were described
"Pliny,
"Naturalis historia," Lib. xxxvii, cap. 29. In his recently published "
Curious Lore of Precious Stones " the present writer suggested that
Pliny's lychnis might have been a spinel, but while some of
these "ardent stones " may have been spinels, those displaying the
phenomenon of attraction must have been tourmalines.
"A. C.Hamlin.
" Theophrasti, " De lapidibus, peri ton lithOn," ed. by John Hill, London, 1746, pp. 71-73 ( cap. rivi ).
" Idem, pp. 88-71 (cap. zlvi) ; see also Hill's note on p. 69.
