examples of relief or intaglio are recorded. As an instance may be noted
a remarkable double gem or medallion said to have been revealed on
splitting open a clump of copper ore from the Bottendorf copper mines.
On each of the two halves was marked the image of a male human head,
dressed with a peruke, but while on one side the representation was in
relief, on the opposite half it was in intaglio.[82]
A remarkable find of three of these naturally marked stones is stated to
have been made in the river Theiss, near the town of Winterhut, in 1556,
“on a Monday after the festival of St. Gall.” On one of these flint
pebbles was depicted a cross, a sword and a rod; the two others bore
respectively a cross and the Burgundian arms, all being as clearly
defined as though the work of the human hand.[83]
These smaller natural pictures were, however, greatly surpassed in
effectiveness by some most extraordinary representations on slabs of
stone, frequently on marble slabs, the strange arrangement of the
veinings constituting veritable pictures of considerable extent and
marvellously deceptive quality. Thus in the church of San Lorenzo in
Florence was to be seen a natural marble on which were depicted two men
bearing a bunch of grapes on a rod.[84] Another marble slab, preserved
in the Danish Collection in Copenhagen and originally owned by James I
of England, presented in most beautiful colors an image of a
crucifix.[85]
To the natural image found in a specimen of copper ore may be added a
much more remarkable picture discovered in a piece of iron ore. This was
found on October 8, 1669, by a miner of the Innesberg mines. The clump
of ore weighed about two pounds and when the miner split it open with a
blow of his hammer, he was startled to see on the upper half a strange
and marvellous design. Calling up a companion, he exclaimed: “Look here!
Here is the Blessed Virgin on this stone!” On examining the other half,
the same design appeared there also. This remarkable find is said to
have been recorded in the book of the mine, the stone itself having been
delivered to the German imperial inspectors.[86]
It is well to bear in mind that the number of these _lusus naturæ_
seemed very much larger in the eyes of writers of a few centuries ago
than to us to-day, for the numerous petrifactions, showing a great
variety of animal and vegetable forms, were for a long period included
in the same category with the stones bearing curiously deceptive
markings or veinings. Much ingenuity was expended by early observers in
the attempt to explain the cause of these phenomena. The learned Jesuit,
Athanasius Kircher, for example, after having proved experimentally that
designs treated with certain chemical agents could be made to impress
figures upon stones, took refuge in the strange hypothesis that pictures
made on wood or some soft material by primitive miners had been left in
the mine and with the lapse of time had slipped down into crevices in
the rock, and, becoming tightly wedged in, had impressed the design on
the contact-rock; or else he suggested that the original material on
which the design had been made might in process of time have, by some
unknown means, been converted into marble.[87] As a striking example of
a picture of this class, Kircher notes and figures an image naturally
designed on a stone slab in St. Peter’s in Rome and bearing a remarkable
likeness to the Blessed Virgin of Loreto.[88]
The electric or magnetic gems, tourmaline, amber, and loadstone, possess
not only great scientific interest, but demonstrate the fact that a
certain energy really does proceed from some of these fair, ornamental
objects, an energy that produces a positive action from without upon the
human body. This may well serve to make us less resolutely sceptical as
to the possible presence in gem-stones of some other forms of emanation
not as yet susceptible of scientific determination.
The supersensitiveness of the innocent child-soul to the most delicate
impressions, and hence to the radiations or emanations from precious
stones, is well brought out in the pretty tale by Saxe Holme (Helen Hunt
Jackson), entitled “My Tourmaline.”[89] The particular specimen here
immortalized was one of the finest from the famous Mount Mica deposits
in the State of Maine. One day, while on a country ramble, the little
heroine’s eye is caught by the color and sparkle of a brilliant crystal
lodged in the gnarled roots of an old tree. In springing forward to
secure this pretty treasure the girl trips on the outstanding roots,
falls, and sprains her leg very seriously, so that she is laid up for
six weeks. However, the beautiful crystal is her great consolation
through the long, dreary weeks, and, strange to say, she comes to feel
that it has a kind of life in it. This is manifested to her and also to
some others, on touching the stone, by a pricking or tingling sensation
in the hand; but to the child the sensations excited by the wonderful
crystal, as perfectly formed as though cut by a lapidary, red at one
end, green at the other, with a separating band of white, are much more
pronounced. When it is placed in the little silken bag that has been
made to hold it, and is laid against her cheek, her feverish
restlessness gradually disappears and gives place to tranquil sleep.
More than this, she is aware of a species of subconscious sympathy with
the tourmaline. So intense is this sympathy that although the child
consented to part with her crystal that it might be offered as a unique
specimen to a foreign museum, and was heart-broken to learn that through
some carelessness it had been lost while being taken thither, she
recognized its presence long years after, when, travelling in Europe as
a young bride, she entered the cabinet of an enthusiastic collector to
view his specimens, and was in no wise surprised when she really found
her “Stonie” there among his prized tourmalines.
In connection with this pretty recital it is interesting to note that
the first chance observation of the attractive qualities of tourmalines
is said to have been made in Amsterdam by a group of Dutch children
whose attention had been attracted by a number of tourmaline crystals
brought from the Orient, and who were puzzled to see bits of ash and
straw attracted to the stones. This came to the knowledge of some Dutch
lapidaries, who for a time called the stone Aschentrekker, or
“Ash-Attractor.”[90] Our name tourmaline is derived from _turmali_, the
name given the stone by the natives of Ceylon.
There seems some little likelihood that certain examples of the gem
called _lychnis_ and noted by Pliny may have been varieties of the
tourmaline. As the first tourmalines brought to modern Europe came to
Holland from Ceylon, we might conjecture that those kinds of _lychnis_
said by Pliny to have been brought from India had a like origin. Of
these Indian specimens, the finest examples of this gem, one kind
resembled the carbuncle or ruby, while another bore the designation
Ionia because its color was like that of the violet (in Greek _ion_).
The most striking peculiarity of the _lychnis_ was its power to attract
straws or bits of paper, when it had been heated by the sun’s rays or by
hand-friction.[91]
Such is the confusion in the statements made by the early Greek and
Latin writers as to the emerald, under which generic name they seem to
have included almost all green stones of any ornamental or other value,
that we cannot absolutely reject the conjecture[92] that Theophrastus
(third century B.C.), the earliest of these writers on precious stones,
_might_ have referred to specimens of green tourmaline, when he states
that the true emerald appeared to have been produced from jasper, as one
of the Cyprian specimens was said to have consisted of one-half jasper
and the other half emerald, the metamorphosis as yet being
incomplete.[93] We admit that if Theophrastus uses the word jasper here
to signify the reddish variety, we would have the combination of green
and red zones in a single crystal sometimes observable in tourmaline.
How this can be reconciled with the previous statement of the same
author that the Cyprian “emeralds” which came from the copper mines of
that island were chiefly used for soldering gold, and hence seem to have
been of the class of mineral called _chrysocolla_ by ancient writers,
is, however, not easy to suggest.[94]
The so-called Brazilian emeralds mentioned by the Dutch mineralogist,
Johann de Laet, as having been found shortly before 1647 in mines near
Spiritus Sanctus, may perhaps have been green tourmalines. These
crystals were described by Gesner as of cylindrical form, striated, and
of a vitreous lustre; their color was like that of the prase and they
were transparent. Although De Laet adds the assertion that the Oriental
emerald (green corundum) was as hard as the sapphire, the Brazilian
emeralds approached more closely to the Oriental in point of hardness
than did emeralds from any other source of supply;[95] and green
sapphires have never been found in Brazil, while green tourmalines have
been.
The earliest published work in which the electric properties of
tourmaline are noted appears to be an anonymous or quasi anonymous
treatise published in 1707, certain initial letters of the quaint title
being italicized to indicate the initials of the author’s name.[96] The
first scientist to derive the action of the so-called _Aschentrekker_ or
“Ash-Attractor” from electric energy is said to have been the great
Linnæus, who bestowed upon the tourmaline the name of the “Electrical
Stone.”[97]
The attractive properties of the tourmaline are said to have been first
brought to scientific notice by M. Louis Lémery, in a report made during
1717 to the French Academy of Sciences; however, Lémery was inclined to
attribute them to magnetic influence. That these phenomena of attraction
and repulsion were really due to the electric properties of the stone
was first clearly brought out by the German physicist, Franz Ulrich
Theodor Aepinus, and his conclusions were communicated to the Berlin
Academy of Sciences in 1756.[98] Aepinus made his experiments upon two
specimens of tourmaline from Ceylon, which had been furnished him by
Lehmann, a fellow-member of the Berlin Academy, who, as Aepinus frankly
admits, first drew his attention to the electric action of the stone.
That not only friction but heat also should develop the electric energy,
both positive and negative, of the tourmaline, serves to differentiate
it from many other potentially electric substances, in the case of which
friction alone is effective.
[Illustration:
A SIMPLE APPARATUS FOR ILLUSTRATING THE ELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF THE
TOURMALINE
The stone is suspended from a hollow rod and will be attracted by the
finger, if the latter be brought within a short distance of the
tourmaline. When the stone has been slightly heated, its positive
electricity will draw toward it the heart-shaped piece of paper,
just as amber attracts paper, or magnetic iron does iron filings.
]
The specimen shown by M. Lémery to the French Academy of Sciences in
1717 is stated to have come from “a river in the Island of Ceylon,” and
is described as being of small size, flat, orbicular, quite thin, of a
brown color, and smooth brilliant surface.[99] Its peculiar property of
attracting and then repelling ashes or iron filings as well as bits of
paper, was duly noted. This specimen had cost M. Lémery 15 livres. After
reciting the constant repulsion and attraction exercised by a magnet
upon the needle, the attraction by the opposite pole, and repulsion by
the same pole, he proceeds to remark that this Cinghalese stone acted
quite differently, since it first attracted and then repulsed the same
object presented in the same way. This intermittent or irregular action
was in his opinion to be explained by the theory that a vortex was
intermittently developed in the substance. As it begins the small bodies
are attracted, when it ceases they remain stationary, but when it is
renewed “and there emanates from the stone a material analogous to the
magnetic emanation” then the bodies are repulsed. Another peculiarity
was that the body which had been repulsed could not again be attracted,
whence the conclusion was arrived at that the stone’s repellent force
was superior to its attractive power. These necessarily somewhat inexact
observations are interesting as marking one of the earliest attempts to
explain these phenomena, even although the explanation is faulty.
The great French crystallographer, Abbé Haüy, relates his experiments on
a tourmaline crystal.[100] He set this crystal in steel clamps, with a
long stem which was inserted in a wooden handle, and then subjected the
tourmaline to the heat of a brasier. As the heat augmented and
penetrated the stone, its natural electric force became decomposed, the
two component fluids being forced to separate from each other. It was
now necessary to cool the tourmaline off a little; when too much heated
the electrical phenomena were interrupted; they were also diminished in
intensity when the stone became cool again. The perfect crystal chosen
for experiment clearly showed the negative and positive electrical
poles; even the smallest pieces showed this, and, indeed, if a very
small piece were broken off the positively electric side of a crystal,
it would preserve this positive electricity and soon develop a negative
electricity also.
We may be somewhat loath to doubt the tale that little Dutch children
were the first to note what to them was the queer action of some bits of
tourmaline, but preference should probably be given to the statement
that the discovery of the electric phenomena induced by heating in these
stones was due to the fact that some Dutch jewellers put specimens of
tourmaline in the fire to test their hardness, and then found that the
stones attracted or repelled the ashes of the fire.[101]
Toward the middle of the eighteenth century Dr. Haberden, of London,
confirmed the deductions of Lémery and the somewhat later experiments of
the German physicist Aepinus, and the gay world of London took up the
idea, causing the new stone to become a great favorite with the
fashionable. One of Hogarth’s inimitable designs depicts a spendthrift
fop who has just been arrested while his attention was riveted on the
strange phenomena shown by the tourmaline.
In view of the important experiments made by Benjamin Franklin in the
then almost unexplored field of electricity, it is easy to understand
that the accounts of the newly-discovered electric properties of the
tourmaline should have possessed considerable interest for him. This is
testified to by a letter he addressed to Dr. William Haberden, June 7,
1759.[102] Herein he expresses his thanks for two tourmalines his
correspondent had sent him, and states that he is returning the smaller
one. Of the electric phenomena he writes that he had heard some
“ingenious gentlemen abroad” had denied the negative electricity
displayed by one side of a tourmaline, but he believes the failure to
observe could be explained by defective cutting of the specimens used,
the positive and negative planes having perhaps been obliquely placed;
to obviate this he suggests that the positive and negative sides should
be accurately determined before the operation of cutting begins. The
larger of the specimens sent by Dr. Haberden was retained by Franklin,
who had it mounted on a pivot in a ring, so that either side could be
turned outward at will. He notes as a curious circumstance that when he
wore this ring, the natural heat of the finger sufficed to charge the
stone, causing it to attract light bodies. Several of his experiments
were made with a cork ball suspended by a thread, and he claims that the
attractive force of the positive face was increased by coating it with
gold-leaf attached to the stone by white of egg. This greater effect he
supposed “to be occasioned by the united force of the different parts of
the face collected and acting together through the metal.”
While the various corundum gems, ruby, sapphire, Oriental topaz,
Oriental amethyst, etc., offer a remarkable instance of the many
varieties of beautiful coloration observable in a practically identical
substance, no single gem-mineral can be said to equal tourmaline in this
respect, more especially, however, in the combination of several colors
sometimes disposed in bands, at other times in concentric circles in the
same crystal. When to this we add its peculiar electric qualities, we
may truly say that a fine tourmaline answers our idea of what a
talismanic gem or a gem-amulet should be better than any other of the
beautiful crystals with which bountiful nature has provided us. These
most attractive stones are to be found in widely separated regions on
the earth’s surface, as fine examples have been discovered in the State
of Minas Geraes, Brazil, and in our own land, in Maine and California
especially. Where the color is homogeneous we may have the splendid red
or rose-colored variety called rubellite, from its resemblance to the
ruby, or the blue tourmaline gem named indicolite.
In times of old there was a belief that stones of various kinds would
guard against the assaults of evil in the form of witchcraft, disease,
and other disagreeable visitations. It was a warlike period in which
peace was an unheard-of doctrine, and now that the idea of peace has
become one of the ideals of present-day conditions, it is interesting to
know that nature has furnished us with a stone at once beautiful,
interesting, and illustrating the great fundamental principle of unity
and peace.
The Peace Stone is formed by the union in one crystal of the green and
the red tourmaline, with an intervening band or zone of white, the
latter strikingly beautiful effect being due to the combination at this
point of the red coloring matter, manganese, and the iron constituent,
the source of the green hue; these two materials, by their union,
neutralize each other, furnishing the transparent, colorless vein or
zone. A slightly different combination of colors appears in a fine
crystal, found some years ago at Mount Mica, Oxford County, Maine; this
even offers a kind of “triple alliance,” as it shows blue in its lower
half, passing through white and pink to a grass-green at the upper
end.[103]
These three hues combined in one body, in indissoluble union in spite of
the differences of quality and color, yet represent one principle. This
action of manganese in neutralizing the iron is well known to
glass-makers; otherwise white glass could not be made. It would all be
greenish in tint were it not for the use of oxide of manganese, or
“glass-maker’s soap,” as it is termed, which neutralizes the production
of a green tint by the iron and makes the white hue.
This beautifully symbolic stone is found in Paris, Maine, in San Diego
County, California, and in Brazil. At times the outer edge of the stone
is green, a transparent white zone surrounding the interior red zone,
the whole looking for all the world like a section of watermelon, and
hence it is sometimes called the “Watermelon Stone.” Then again, the
colors are joined in longitudinal strips, showing them side by side.
This variety of tourmaline, although rare, is not especially costly, and
is one more addition to the stones of sentiment, and more especially to
those appropriate as symbols of our fair ideal, universal peace.
We can see symbolized in them the great and consoling fact that, however
marked may be the differences between any two peoples, they need not be
cause for enmity, but may instead become true and enduring sources of
peace and bonds of union. The characteristic talents of each one will
supplement and complete those of the other, so that working together in
harmony they may accomplish far more for each other and for humanity in
general than either could do singly.
At an early date amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Rome, and
Tacitus states that those who collected it called it _glæsum_, a name
later applied to the glass introduced into that region by Roman traders.
The natives knew nothing of the nature or growth of amber, and had no
use for the material, only collecting it for export to Rome, where it
commanded such a high price as to excite their astonishment. Tacitus
gives in the following words his theory of the origin and character of
amber—his chief error being due to his belief that the substance was of
very recent formation.[104]
Now you must know that amber is a juice of trees, since various
creatures, some of them winged, are often found in it. They have
become entangled in the liquid and then inclosed when the matter
hardened. Therefore I believe that, as incense and balsam are exuded
in the remote East, so in the luxuriant groves and islands of the West
are juices which are forced out by the sun close to them. These flow
into the neighboring sea and are washed up by the tempestuous waves on
the opposite shore. If you test the quality of amber with fire, it may
be lighted like a torch and burns with a small, well-nourished flame;
then it is resolved into a glutinous mass resembling pitch or resin.
Both Juvenal[105] and Martial[106] relate that effeminate Romans used to
hold balls of amber in their hands to cool them during the summer heat.
If any such agreeable sensation was really experienced, it must have
been due to the well-known electric properties of this substance. It is
stated that the Chinese often place pieces of amber on or in their
pillows,[107] a use that may have been suggested by the same
considerations.
As a proof of the extravagant value set upon amber by the Romans of the
first century, Pliny notes that a very diminutive figure of a man, cut
out of this substance, sold for a higher figure than did a healthy,
vigorous slave. The popularity of this material was also attested by the
fact that in the gay world of Rome the term “amber hair” was used to
designate a rare and peculiar shade that became fashionable in this
period.[108] It seems probable that this modish shade was somewhat
lighter than the “Titian hair” once so much favored, although the
difference may not have been very great.
A change of hue in amber was thought to portend a waning of love on the
part of the giver, as is shown by the following not especially melodious
lines from “The Fruits of Jealousy” published by Richard Tofte in
1615:[109]
Thy tokens which to me thou sent
In time may make thee to repent;
Thy gifts do groan (bestow’d on me)
For grief that they thee guilty see.
The amber bracelet thou me gave
(For fear thou shouldst shortly wave[110])
From yellow turned is to pale,
A sign thou shortly will be stale.
Not only for curative purposes and for general use as an amulet was
amber prized, but an amber necklace was sometimes regarded as an
especially auspicious decoration for a bride at her wedding, as is shown
by an exceptionally fine necklace of facetted amber beads from
Brunswick, Germany, made in the eighteenth century.
Our earliest authority on the curative use of amber, the great
encyclopædist Pliny, states that in his day the female peasants of the
valley of the Po, in northern Italy, might be seen wearing amber
necklaces, principally as ornaments, but also because of their remedial
powers; for even at this early period it was generally believed that
amber had most excellent effects in diseases of the throat and tonsils.
The peasants of this region were especially subject to such disorders,
and Pliny conjectures that they were caused by the different sorts of
water in the neighborhood of the Alps.[111] He probably refers not only
to diseases of the throat, properly so called, but also to a swelling of
the glands of the neck, the _goître_ with which so many of the peasants
living on the slopes of the Alps, and in other mountainous regions of
central Europe, are afflicted.