THE ORIGIN OF THE DIAMOND. (Scientific American.)

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 317, 26 May 1874, Page 2

THE ORIGIN OF THE DIAMOND. (Scientific American.)

It—that »,the parapra. li— praTcly alleges/on the Btrrastli of some siipDosrd philosopher's opinion, that diamond* are in au probability a cosmic product— chips of original creation, so to »peak— irhiVh tho rarth hns „;,.k,.d in, „, the cmirw of her tiavcls through ap nw . ; in «|,oit, that thr V arc of meteoric origin. To tho populur miud there must bo j

something plausible in the suggestion, else it would not have been so favorably received by so many intelligent editors, ever on the alert for bits of valuable scientific information wherewith to regale their intelligent readers. Indeed, what could be more plausible to those whose knowledge of the diamond is embraced by the one word, carbon, and whoso acquaintance with it is limited to some little familiarity with the appearance of the cut. gem ? Ho?r pure, how hard, how brilliant ! What fitter product could there be of the heavenly spaces ? But facts are earthly and very stubborn, prone ever to take fcho shine out of splendid theories. It is true that tlio diamond is a puzzle even to chemists ; that the mode of its formation is a mystery ; that even its placff in the order of Nature is a matter of doubt. Like amber, it isfound among minerals. Amber is known to- be a vegetable product ; and the diamond is thought by some to show strong evidence of a similar origin. Its antecedents are mysterious, it must be admitted, but not wholly dark. Enough is known to make it certain that the notion of its cosmic origin is not to be seriously entertained, unless one is prepared to accept at the same time the-far-fetched, germ bearing meteor which Sir William Thomson suggested as the importer of life to our previously lifeless planet. In no other way, barring the earthly production of the gem, can we account for the presence of plant germ* in the bodies of diamond crystals. Where in extraterrestrial spaces could the diamond, now at Berlin, have picked up its inclosed organic forms, so closely resembling protococcus pluvial is ? Or that other diamond its chain of green corpuscles, like polinoglcta macrocca 1 As surely as flies in amber prove the presence of animal life during some stage in the formation of that singular substance, the vegetable organisms found in diamonds are proof that these gems were formed amid surroundings not inconsistent with the presence of vegetation, perhaps in water ; a supposition that finds support not only in. the fact of their occasional inclusion of organic matter, but still more in tbe presence of dendrites, such as form on raine« ah of aquatic origin, in a diamond belonging te Professor G-oppert. Crystals of gold, iron and other minerals have also been found inside of diamonds ; still other diamonds arc superficially impressed by sand and crystals, which leads some to believo the - « to hare been originally soft ; but it is quite as probable that these foreign substances may have interfered in some way with the perfect development of the diamond crystals, forcing them to grow around or partly uround the ob'ttructions*