gems, history of gemology, Robert Boyle

Among the many oddities described by the natural philosopher Robert Boyle was a self-destructive diamond. “I shall here add a Astrange Instance,” he wrote in a work published in 1685, “which was afforded me by a Diamond, belonging to an ingenious Merchant of that sort of Gems, who brought many fine ones out of the East Indies. For having at the Diamond-Mine it self, purchas’d amongst other Stones that grew there, a rough Diamond that he valued at about a hundred pound, and had well considered when he brought it; coming to look over his purchase again once more, about