1895. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 155 



When is a Ruby not a Ruby? 



It is recorded that a police constable on duty in a public museum 

 was once overheard making zealous reply to a visitor of an enquiring 

 turn of mind, who had asked the meaning of the word corundum, 

 conspicuous upon a case of minerals ; " Oh, that be the place where 

 they put all them stones as they can't guess at." Though inaccurate 

 as an indication of the habits of museum curators, this definition 

 might well refer to the riddle relating to this very mineral which 

 museum curators and others will, unless we are greatly mistaken, be 

 soon called upon to rede. 



The artificial rubies made in Paris a few years ago by Messrs. 

 Fremy and Feil were regarded as scientific curiosities. But stones 

 are now being largely sold (it would be very interesting to know how 

 largely) in London and elsewhere which, while closely resembling in 

 all essential respects the rubies of Burma, are undoubtedly of 

 artificial origin. Tried for hardness, specific gravity, lustre, and 

 subjected to all the tests which are usually applied to precious stones, 

 they cannot be distinguished from the natural ruby ; this is not 

 surprising, for they are not, like other artificial stones, different from 

 what they profess to be, but are actually crystallised red alumina, only 

 differing from the natural ruby in the process by which they have 

 been produced. Examined with the microscope they betray their 

 origin by the glassy enclosures which they contain and sometimes by 

 a streaky appearance. 



Yet it would be difficult to assert that these are not rubies, 

 unless, indeed, the definition of a ruby be understood to include of 

 necessity a natural origin. Considering, however, the enormous 

 prices paid for Burmese rubies, it is certainly not fair that mere 

 imitations should pass as such. If their beauty as jewels be equal to 

 that of the true ruby, let them by all means fetch as high a price as 

 they deserve on their own merits ; but we cannot refrain from 

 speculating as to their market value if they were labelled " Made in 

 Paris." According to French law it has been decided, we believe, 

 that a ruby is certainly not a ruby when it is made in a crucible. 



Oranges and Frost from Florida. 



Walt Whitman brings forward as a proof of civilisation — 



" A bunch of orange buds by mail from Florida. 

 To my plain Northern hut, in outside clouds and snow, 

 Brought safely for a thousand miles o'er land and tide." 



For us the Florida oranges are a similar proof of the smallness of our 

 modern world, with its civilisations made interdependent through 

 commerce, just as its natural phenomena are proved already inter- 

 dependent by science. A few weeks ago the wholesale price of 

 Florida oranges was some ten shillings a box, but now the price 

 is twice or three times that amount. A cold wave passed through 



