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about it. The poliſhing theſe Stones is alſo a Work of great Trouble.
of theſe Characters, but would certainly have deſcribed its Shape, which is the moſt ſtriking, obvious, and remarkable thing about it. We are therefore to ſeek for ſome Stone better anſwering this Deſcription; and this we find, even to the utmoſt Exactneſs, in the Gem which we now call the Hyacinth, which it is alſo evident they have never deſcribed under any other Name but this, (for what they called the Hyacinth, was a Stone of a very different Sort, and reckoned by us either among the Garnets or Amethyſts) and which it is not eaſy to conceive how they could better or more exactly have deſcribed, than they have in their Accounts of the Lyncurius. I have before obſerved, that Theophraſtus mentions more than one Species of it, and we at preſent know three. Pliny ſeems, in the Paſſage I have quoted from him, to have meant that beautiful Species of it which we call the Hyacintha la bella, a Gem in great Eſteem, of a flame Colour with an Admixture of a deep Red, but without any Tendency to Blackneſs. Theſe we have from Cambaia, and other Parts of the Eaſt Indies, and ſometimes from Bohemia, but not ſo hard or beautiful as the Oriental. Our ſecond Kind are the ſaffron-coloured; theſe are next in Eſteem after the La Bella, and are from the ſame Places. The third are the amber-coloured; theſe have no mixture of red; theſe were the female Lyncuria of the Antients, and are the leaſt eſteemed of all: They are found in Sileſa, Bohemia, Spain, and Italy.
The candid and excellent Dr. Watſon has given many Reaſons for ſuppoſing the Antients to have been acquainted with our Tourmaline, and to have known that Stone by the Name of Lapis Lyncurius. Theſe are Fields of Conjecture, open to all who rouſe the learned Quarry; and it is with a great deal of Pleaſure I have read thoſe Obſervations of my learned Friend: perhaps a great deal may be ſaid to ſhew they do not diſagree with my own. For thus much is certain, that the Hyacinth, which I underſtand here to be alluded to, has an electric Power.
As to the Stone Æpinus, and others, uſed in their Experiments, and called the Tourmaline; and which their Authority has fixed as the Tourmaline to this Day; that is a peculiar Species of Garnet, differing in every eſſential Character from the other Garnets. It is a priſm of nine Sides, with two trihaedral Pyramids. Its Colour is purple, not fiery red, as the πυῤῥα of Theophraſtus muſt compel us to believe the Lyncurius to be; nor have we yet
