Diamonds 1

Abstract

FROM the earliest times the diamond has fascinated mankind. It has been a perennial puzzle—one of the “riddles of the painful earth.” It is recorded in “Sprat's History of the Royal Society” (1667) at among the questions sent by order of the society to Sir Philiberto Vernatti, resident in Batavia, was one inquiring “Whether Diamonds grow again after three or four years in the same places where they have been digged out? ” The answer sent back was “Never, Or at least as the memory of man can attain to.”