20 A Book of Precious Stones
Streeter exalts above all gems the pearl, the mollusc
product which Bauer relegates with the comparatively common coral to an
appendix. Streeter, who is recognised as a high British authority,
accords the ruby second place and places the diamond third; but when he
inscribed this judgment " The Syndicate," which now in his own city of
London controls with the output of the South African diamond mines the
world's gem markets, did not exist. As Streeter was, when he wrote his Precious Stones and Gems, expensively and hazardously exploiting the famous ruby mines of Burma, he naturally regarded the ruby as of prime importance.
Kluge's
classification is primarily based on the degree of hardness, clearly
from the viewpoint of the strictly scientific mineralogist. Dr. Bauer
also yields to the mineralogical influence, for, while he justly leads
with the diamond, following it with the ruby and then the sapphire, he
continues by naming a line of gems seldom handled, concluding with "
Adamantine spar," a name which some jewellers have never heard, nor
have they seen the mineral it specifies. This extreme course is
pursued by Dr. Bauer because these several stones are alike with the
ruby and the sapphire in being
