8 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 4, 



tion by parallel light was not always perfect, which he believed 

 to be due to the presence of the bubbles. He states that he 

 himself has obtained small red globules with these inclusions by 

 fusing alumina by oxyhydrogen flame; and, although having no 

 positive evidence, he believes these stones to be artificially ob- 

 tained by fusion. 



On the receipt of M. Friedel's report, the syndicate decided 

 that all cabochon or cut stones of this kind shall be sold 

 as artificial, and not precious gems. Unless consignments are 

 so marked the sales will be considered fraudulent, and the mis- 

 demeanor punishable under the penal code. All sales effected 

 thus far, amounting to some 600,000 or 800,000 francs, shall be 

 cancelled, and the money and stones returned to their resi^ective 

 owners. 



The action taken by the syndicate has fully settled the posi- 

 tion which this production will hold among gem dealers, and 

 there is little reason to fear that the true ruby will ever lose the 

 place it has occupied for so many centuries. These stones show 

 the triumph of modern science in chemistry, it is true ; and 

 although some may be willing to have the easily attainable, there 

 are others who will almost want, what the true ruby is becoming 

 to-day, the unattainable. One will be nature's gem, and the 

 other the gem made by man. 



The' following recapitulation of the progress made from time 

 to time by the different investigators in the artificial reproduc- 

 tion of ruby and sapphire, may be of more than passing interest 

 at this moment: Gaudin (C. R., 1857, Vol. IV,, p. 999, and 

 1857, Vol. XLIV., p. 716.~L'Inst., t. XXV., p. 110— J. pr. 

 Chem., LXX., p. 381— Bibl. univ. de Geneve, t. XXXIV., p. 68. 

 — Jahrb. f. Min.,1857, p. 444) was the first to reproduce corun- 

 dum, which he did by heating before the oxyhydrogen blowpipe 

 a closed crucible containing equal parts of alum and sulphate of 

 potash and charcoal. It was tired for fifteen minutes and then 

 slowly cooled. The mass was then lixiviated and attacked with 

 diluted aqua regia, which left a sand formed of small corundum 

 crystals, 1 mm. long and ^ mm. thick. They were hexagonal 

 plates having bases striated in three directions parallel to the 

 sides. Some very fine included microliths resembling sillimanite 

 were also observed in these crystals. 



Eisner (J. pr. Chem., t. XVII., ^. 175), operating in the same 

 way, by fusing before the oxyhydrogen blowpipe anhydrous 

 alumina with bichromate of potash obtained red crystalline 

 grains as hard as rubies. 



' See " Encyclopedie Chimique," Tome II., Reproduction Artificielle 

 des Mineraux, par M. L. Bourgeois. 



