Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
xviii
INTRODUCTION

little liable to fluctuation, and has continued for several years gradually to increase in value; insomuch that the price of stones of good quality, if estimated by the rules in practice sixty years ago, would now, even in the depressed state of the market, be considerably too little[1]

The properties and characters of the Diamond have occupied the attention of chemists, crystallographers, and minerallogists, from the time of Pliny to the present day: the most intelligent of our



  1. The commerce of Diamonds may hereafter be much affected by the recent political changes in Brazil; as Europe depends almost entirely on that country for its supply.