Gems and Jewelry 3
is
the name of the science that has to do with metals; " gemology " is a
word sometimes used to describe the branch of art or of the crafts that
deals with gems which have passed through the hands of the diamond
cutter or the lapidary. The general reader resents the disposition of
scientific writers to indulge in technical terminology, though the
steady development of popular interest in pure science has in some
measure reconciled the reading masses to a sparing and judicious use of
the technical terms of specialists.
Scientific
hobbies are nowadays common; some take to mineralogy, some to botany,
some to entomology. So far as popularity is concerned, the scientific
study of gems is, as compared with the studies above named, at a
disadvantage. The novice adventuring into the study of nature is apt to
be attracted by life and action, and his attention won by the forms
that are most beautiful, .as birds, butterflies, or wildflowers.
Sometimes the adaptability of specimens to photography weighs heavily
in the scale of choice, or, perhaps, the ease with which they can be
preserved with their natural brilliancy of colouring as in the case of
moths, beetles, or the leaves of forest trees. The
