Sec. II, Ch. 1: The Diamond

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	The Diamond. 69

	into the liquid, it burns with great brilliancy, and yields by its oxidation, carbonic acid, which at the low temperature of the condensed oxygen forms a solid snow-like substance. Although chemists concluded long ago that the Diamond was a natural form of carbon, it remained for Dumas, the eminent French chemist, in conjunction with Stas, of Brussels, to undertake about the year 1840, some refined researches, which definitely fixed with extreme precision the chemical composition of the Diamond. M. Friedel in Paris, and Sir Henry Roscoe in this country, have also investigated the subject, and the chemistry of the Diamond is thus placed beyond dispute.

	*THE ORIGIN OF THE DIAMOND.* Numerous hypotheses, some extremely ingenious, have been suggested by scientific men to explain the origin and formation of the Diamond. Some have supposed that it has been formed immediately from carbon or carbonic acid by the action of heat ; others that it has been produced from the gradual decomposition of vegetable matter, with or without heat, or that it is formed from the decomposition of gaseous hydro-carbons ; whilst others again believe that it has been crystallized from a molten metal like iron. Leonhardt held that the Diamond was formed by the sublimation of carbon in the depths of the earth ; Parrot that it was produced by the action of volcanic heat upon small pieces of carbon ; Göbel, that pure carbon has been separated from carbonic acid by electricity in the presence of reducing agents, such as magnesium, calcium, aluminium, silicon and iron ; Hausmann, that it is by the action of

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