1884.] 5 [Bout<*. 



on the same face he was obliged to admit that he quite as easily 

 produced as much effect. 



Stones are every day bought of dealers for what they are not, 

 and this, too, is done without any intention on their part to 

 deceive. I take the opportunity to here state that with an inti- 

 mate knowledge respecting many in our large cities I feel sure 

 that they are generally men of highly honorable character, who 

 would despise using deception in their business transactions. 



Of course buying as they do the cut stones from abroad and 

 relying mainly upon the eye alone to distinguish one gem from 

 another, it is absolutely impossible for the most experienced of 

 them not to be sometimes deceived. 



That the discrimination of the degrees of hardness among gems 

 is not very accurate, even with lapidaries, may be judged by the 

 fact, that having some rough Ceylon stones, I sent seven to one 

 well-known lapidist asking that he would give the name to each 

 as determined by him in cutting them. All but two were pro- 

 nounced Sapphires. I subsequently proved that there was but 

 one Sapphire among them all and that four so-called were Zir- 

 cons. This was demonstrated both by their specific gravity, and 

 by dissolving the powder fused with soda in muriatic acid and 

 obtaining upon immersion of tumeric paper the beautiful orange 

 tint which only Zirconia yields. 



Before concluding I will state what may be of importance to 

 those who incline to test gems for their specific gravity, that 

 they will not find any such variation as is given in the minera- 

 logical works for the species to which they respectively belong. 

 This, of course, might be expected as the range of weight thus 

 given is not always confined to the purest crystallized mineral. 

 Take Quartz, for instance, the specific gravity is stated as 

 from 2.5 to 2.8. Now there is no such variation with this min- 

 eral as it presents itself in transparent gems. In truth, the varia- 

 tion is surprisingly small. Examining as I have done a very 

 large number of stones, I am led to the belief that there is sel- 

 dom if ever any that vary two hundredths of a millegram from 

 2.65. In all my weighing I have found but one specimen that 

 fell below 2.64, and this but three thousandths of a millegram ; 

 and only one that exceeded 2.66, and this but eight thousandths 

 of a millegram. The stones weighed included all the varieties of 



