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SOME CONTEOVEESIAL NOTES ON THE DIAMOND. 
By J. E. Sutton, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S.S.A., 
Hon. Memb. R. Met. S., Hon. Memb. S.A.S.C.E. 
* (Witli one Text-figure.) 
1. Spontaneous Breaking. 
The 40th Article of Eeligioii in Kimberley affirms that light brown 
smok J- looking diamonds always burst to pieces. So profound is the faith 
that a debris washer who finds such a diamond — which may have been out 
of the mine for forty years — will at once race off with it to a dealer, and 
will return triumphantly explaining how he offloaded" it before it burst. 
In the same way a river digger who finds such another — which may have 
been tumbled in the gravels of the Vaal for ages — will carry it about in his 
mouth, or inside a potato, trembling until he has transferred the risk of its 
exploding to some buyer. 
The thought that naturally arises upon reflection is that surely the 
dealers know all about the risk, and that the 40fch Article is altogether in 
their own interests. 
In recent times writers on the diamond, almost without exception taking 
the 40th Article for granted,* have suggested how the bursting might come 
about. G. F. Williams attributes it to dryness, or to heat, which may 
expand hypothetical contained gases when a diamond is taken from a mine ; 
Crookes favours the idea of decrease of pressure in the space surrounding 
the diamond ; Wagner goes the whole distance and claims that diamonds 
exhibiting the phenomenon of cracking or bursting are clearly in a state of 
great internal tension, like Rupert's drops. 
Such explanations seem to be not specially applicable to brown or smoky 
diamonds; they would apply equally well to those of any other colour. 
Apart from that they are redundant for the reason that there is no indis- 
putable evidence that diamonds : (1) burst ; (2) contain gas in sufficient 
quantities to set up great internal strain under the small range of tempera - 
* " . . . sapiunt alieno ex ore petimtque 
Res ex auditis . . . ," — Lucretius. 
