1897.] Diamonds. 477 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, June 11, 1897. 



Sir Frederick Abel, Bart. K.C.B. D.C.L. LL.D. F.E.S. 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



William Crookes, Esq. F.K.S. M.B.L 



Diamonds. 



It seems but the other day I saw London in a blaze of illumination 

 to celebrate Her Majesty's happy accession to the throne. As in a 

 few days the whole Empire will be celebrating the Diamond Jubilee 

 of our Queen, who will then have reigned over her multitudinous 

 subjects for sixty years, what more suitable topic can I bring before 

 you than than that of Diamonds ! One often hears the question 

 asked, " Why Diamond Jubilee ? " I suppose it is a symbol intended 

 to give a faint notion of the pure brilliancy and durability of the 

 Queen's reign ; and in thus associating Her Majesty with the precious 

 Diamond, to convey an idea of those noble qualities public and private 

 which have earned for her the love, fealty and reverence of her sub- 

 jects. 



From the earliest times the diamond has occupied men's minds. 

 It has been a perennial puzzle — one of the riddles of creation. The 

 philosopher Steffans is accredited with the dictum that, " Diamond is 

 quartz which has arrived at self-consciousness!" and an eminent 

 geologist has parodied this metaphysical definition, saying : " Quartz 

 is diamond which has become insane ! " 



Professor Maskelyne, in a lecture " On Diamonds," thirty-seven 

 years ago,* in this very theatre, said, " The diamond is a substance 

 which transcends all others in certain properties to which it is 

 indebted for its usefulness in the arts and its beauty as an ornament. 

 Thus, on the one hand, it is the hardest substance found in nature or 

 fashioned by art. Its reflecting power and refractive energy, on the 

 other hand, exceed those of all other colourless bodies, while it yields 

 to none in the perfection of its pellucidity " — but he was constrained 

 to add " The formation of the diamond is an unsolved problem." 



Recently the subject has attracted many men of science. The 

 development of electricity, with the introduction of the electric fur- 

 nace, has facilitated research, and I think I am justified in saying that 

 if the diamond problem is not actually solved, it is certainly no longer 

 insoluble. 



* ' Chemical News,' vol. i. p. 208. 



