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Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond

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The Diamond.
in a mass of charcoal and lime in a crucible, and sub­mitted them to the action of the fire, expressing himself confident that at the end of the trial he should find them uninjured. But alas ! he had sacrificed his Diamonds, for on looking into the crucible after the three hours' trial, they had entirely disappeared. His colleagues, however, did not long enjoy their triumph, for M. Mitouard, another, jeweller, in the presence of the eminent chemist, M.Lavoisier took three Diamends, and having closely packed them in powdered charcoal, in an earthen pipe-bowl, submitted them to the test of fire, and when the bowl was removed and cooled, there lay the Diamonds in the centre of the powdered charcoal, untouched by the heat. Lavoisier was not convinced by the experiment, and it soon occurred to him that the conditions under which Mitouard's test was conducted might account for the difference of result-It was, indeed, soon discovered that the immunity enjoyed by the Diamonds of Mitouard, was due to the exclusion of the oxygen of the air from the Diamond by packing it in a substance of the same nature, in a state of fine division, by which means all the oxygen that was admitted attacked first the carbon, with which it combined. Lavoisier thus appears to have set the matter at rest ; but it was not until 1814 that Sir Humphry Davy showed conclusively by quantitative experiments that the Diamond was practically nothing but pure carbon.
When a Diamond is burnt, with a free supply of oxygen or of atmospheric air, it is completely converted into the gaseous body known to chemists as carbon di-oxide. This carbon di-oxide, which is commonly called carbonic acid, resulting from the burning of the Diamond is identical with that which attends the combustion of
Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond Page of 366 Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond
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