53 



*]th February, 1882. 



The President, Robert Lloyd Patterson, Esq., in the Chair. 



Professor Letts, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., read a Paper on 

 THE DIAMOND. 



The Diamond, on account of its great beauty, rarity, and extra- 

 ordinary hardness, has been held in high estimation from very 

 early times. The word diamond is derived from the Greek 

 " adamas," indomitable, a term applied to it on account of its 

 real property of extraordinary hardness and its supposed property 

 of resisting fire — that is, of not becoming hot when heat was 

 applied to it. But its hardness was exaggerated by the ancients. 

 For instance, Pliny says : u The best of all these diamonds is 

 made upon an anvil by blows of the hammer, and their repulsion 

 for iron is such that they make the hammer fly in pieces, and 

 sometimes the anvil itself is broken." This statement is still 

 believed in by some people, and has occasioned a considerable 

 loss of property. 



By the ancients precious stones were regarded as possessing 

 supernatural powers, and they were accordingly employed as 

 talismans, each species possessing its own peculiarities. The 

 diamond was carried as an antidote to poisons and a preservative 

 against insanity. As an ornamental stone, the diamond was 

 highly esteemed during the early times of the Roman Empire. 

 As early as the first century diamonds had already been brought 

 from India, and from that time till the eighteenth century, prac- 

 tically, the whole supply of diamonds was brought from the 



