Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/39

 are ascertained by scales of the greatest nicety and exactness. A stone weighing two carats would be said to weigh eight grains, and one of four carats and a grain would be more briefly designated by the lower denomination, as weighing seventeen grains.

commerce of diamonds is, perhaps necessarily, in the hands of two distinct classes: viz. the diamond merchants and the jewellers. The former are considered to be men of opulence, well acquainted with the nature and. properties of the gems in which they deal, and with the mechanical details of the manufacturing department. As their dealings are almost exclusively in large amounts, they may he said to be little known, except to the importers of rough diamonds, and to the trade, as distinguished from the public in general. The diamonds being manufactured, cut, and polished; or, to use the technical term, made, are ready for the jeweller, who selects such