the Corundum Stone , and its Varieties, See. 277 
different substances contained in the sand of Ceylon ; having, 
as he says, seen therein some small hexaedral prisms, of a ruby 
red colour, and transparent, which, from the analogy that ap- 
peared to exist between their external characters and those 
peculiar to corundum, might very naturally be ranged with that 
substance. Some particular circumstances certainly prevented 
him from making the same observations respecting the pyramidal 
crystals, of the above colour, which are also found in that sand ; 
and he consequently thought it right, (although he appears to 
have had some doubts upon the subject,) to continue to separate 
the sapphire from corundum, giving to the former the name of 
telesie : indeed he has placed them at a considerable distance 
from each other, the sapphire being the third species of his 
second class of stones, and the corundum the fourteenth. What 
he seems to consider as the strongest arguments in favour of 
this separation, are, the laminated texture so evident in all crystals 
of corundum, and the direction of the laminae being according 
to the inclination of the faces of a rhomboid ; whereas, in the 
sapphire, this laminated texture seemed to him not to exist; 
and he adds, that the fractures of sapphire appeared to him 
to follow a direction perpendicular to the long axis of the 
crystal. 
With regard to this, I shall observe, that in the foregoing 
descriptions of the characters peculiar to this substance, (which 
have been given with all the circumstantial detail necessary in a 
demonstration which is intended to leave no doubt upon the 
subject,) the observations of the Abbe Hauy appear to me to 
have been completely answered. It has there been stated, that 
one of the peculiar properties of this stone was, that it always 
preserved a very distinct laminated texture, in all those varieties 
MDcccir. O o 
