Front matter

Harper’s Library of Living Thought

DIAMONDS BY SIR WILLIAM CROOKES HARPER & BROTHERS LONDON & NEW YORK

THE CULLINAN DIAMOND.

From a photograph by the Author. (See

pages 76–79

.)

Frontispiece.

·DIAMONDS·

BY

SIR WILLIAM CROOKES

LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.

Foreign Sec. R.S., Hon. LL.D. (Birmingham), Hon. Sc.D. (Camb. and Dubl.), Hon. D.Sc. (Oxon. and Cape of Good Hope); Past Pres. Chem. Soc., Brit. Assoc., Inst. Elect. Eng., Soc. Psych. Res.; Hon. Mem. Roy. Phil. Soc. Glasgow, Roy. Soc. N.S.W., Pharm. Soc., Chem. Metall. and Mining Soc. of South Africa, Amer. Chem. Soc., Amer. Philos. Soc., Roy. Soc. Sci. Upsala, Deutsch. Chem. Gesell. Berlin, Psychol. Soc. Paris, “Antonio Alzate” Sci. Soc. Mexico. Sci. Soc. Bucharest, Reg. Accad. Zelanti, Aci Reale; Corresp. Inst. de France (Acad. Sci.), Corresp. Mem. Bataafsch Genoots. Rotterdam, Soc. d’Encouragement pour l’Indust. Paris, For. Mem. Accad. Lincei Rome.

WITH 24 ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON AND NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS 45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1909

TO MY WIFE

MY COMPANION AND FRIEND OF FIFTY-FOUR YEARS. TO HER JUDGMENT AND ADVICE I OWE MORE THAN I CAN EVER REPAY AND TO HER I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.