THE DIAMOND AND OTHER PRECIOUS STONES. 347 



I may in this connection also recite an incident coming within my 

 personal knowledge. I had intrusted a diamond of considerable value 

 to a young trader to be recut in Amsterdam. He there, however, met 

 with reverses, and returned to Paris in a state of the greatest destitution. 

 During the last days of liis homeward travel he was obliged to live upon 

 the wild fruits of the earth, and to sleep in the open air. Although I 

 found him on his return in an apartment with bare walls, and his couch 

 a bed of straw, he had been faithful to his trust. He handed me my 

 jewel, apparently unconscious of merit, merely claiming from me the 

 price of the recutting. After this sad epoch, fortune smiled upon him, 

 and in his prosperity I fancy that I see a providential recompense of 

 such rectitude amid unusual temptation. 



The art of making diamonds has been almost as eagerly sought as that 

 of producing gold. The problems are not, however, the same in prin- 

 ciple, since to make a diamond is simply to crystallize carbon or charcoal; 

 while in producing gold the alchymists attempted to change the very 

 nature of bodies, and to make gold of all things. . Modern chemistry 

 having burnt the diamond, and discovered that the product of its com- 

 bustion is the same as that obtained by the burning of charcoal, we 

 would suppose that some i)eculiar compound of charcoal might be found 

 which, submitted to such process as would allow the carbon to separate 

 very slowly in a condition of perfect stillness, would produce regular 

 crystalline forms. 



It is thus that sugar, salt, and alum are deposited when the water 

 which held them in solution is evaporated very slowly and in perfect 

 stillness. Looking at it in this light, there is a curious substance which 

 renders the experiment of diamond-making a hopeful matter. It is not 

 generally known that in combining sul})hur and carbon a colorless liquid 

 is produced reseuibling v>-ater, and containing really nothing but sulphur 

 and carbon. If by some process the sulphur could be got rid of, either 

 wholly or partially, we might expect to see the carbon deposited in the 

 crystalline state. So far this hope has failed. Many other plans have 

 also failed, so that at this day the crystallization of charcoal is by most 

 persons a thing despaired of. Despretz, a member of the Institute, was 

 however, of a different opinion. By means of the voltaic battery he has 

 obtained on a thread of platina small crystalline depositions, which, by 

 their form and hardness, seem to be really embryonic diamonds. These 

 crystals, or rather, let us say, these particles of diamond dust, have been 

 used in polishing hard stones, in the same manner as ordinary diamond 

 powder. The scientific question is then resolved. But this ingenious 

 aud sagacious academician did not stop here. He organized, as we 

 may say, hundreds of preparations to tacilitate the precipitation and aid 

 crystallization of charcoal under the influence of electricity, an agent 

 which in tbe researches of men is the obedient servant of his will. These 

 interesting facts lead us to indulge the hope that persevering and saga- 

 cious labor will be rewarded by success in the crystallization of carbon, 



