XXIV. —Observations relative to the Structure and Origin of the Diamond.

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Abstract
In the year 1820 I communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh an account of a very singular fact relative to the structure of the diamond, and I added to this communication some conjectures respecting the origin of this remarkable gem. As these conjectures have been referred to by some late and able writers on the diamond mines of India without sufficiently separating the fact from the conjectures, and as I consider the structure which I discovered around the cavities in this mineral as a leading fact in the natural history of this gem, I have been induced to re-examine it with care, and to make a drawing of the phænomena which it presents. In order to bring all the facts into one view, I shall make no apology for quoting my original observations. “Had the diamond not been placed at the head of the mineral kingdom, from its unrivalled lustre and high value as an ornamental gem, it would have attained the same distinction from its great utility in the arts. Separated from all other gems by its remarkable refractive power, and from all mineral substances by its extreme hardness, its chemical composition, and its locality in the crust of the earth, it has always been regarded as an anomalous substance which set even speculation at defiance. “When Sir Isaac Newton compared the refractive power of several bodies, he remarked that amber and the diamond had a refractive power three times greater in respect of their densities than several

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