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The Diamond. 69
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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.
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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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