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Table of Contents

1 Formation and occurrence of gemstones.- 1.1 Formation of inclusions.- 1.2 Inclusions in the major gemstones.- 1.3 Photographing inclusions.- 2 The nature of gemstones.- 2.1 Valency.- 2.2 Bonding.- 2.3 The building blocks of crystals.- 2.4 Polymorphism and isomorphism.- 2.5 The classification of minerals.- 2.6 Crystal structure.- 2.7 Properties of crystals.- 2.8 Gem crystals.- 3 Gem testing.- 3.1 Hardness.- 3.2 Gemstones and light.- 3.3 Specific gravity.- 4 Recent developments in gem testing.- 4.1 Thermal conductivity.- 4.2 Measurement of refractive index.- 4.3 Measurement of reflectivity.- 4.4 Surface assessment.- 4.5 X-ray topography.- 4.6 The electron microscope.- 4.7 The electron microprobe.- 4.8 Electron paramagnetic resonance.- 4.9 Energy dispersive X-ray spectrophotometry.- 4.10 UV spectrophotometry.- 5 Colour.- 5.1 The physics of colour.- 5.2 The chemistry of colour.- 5.3 Colour filters.- 5.4 The spectroscope.- 5.5 Alteration of colour.- 6 Fashioning.- 6.1 Fashioning of diamond.- 6.2 Other stones.- 7 Gemstones in commerce.- 7.1 Diamond grading.- 7.2 Buying gemstones.- 8 Descriptive section: inorganic materials.- 9 Descriptive section: organic materials.- 10 Synthetic and imitation stones.- 10.1 Crystal growth from solution.- 10.2 Growth by flame-fusion.- 10.3 Hydrothermal growth.- 10.4 Crystal pulling.- 10.5 Flux-melt growth.- 10.6 Manufacture of important stones.- 10.7 Composites.- 10.8 Glass.- 10.9 Metals.- 10.10 Ceramics.- 10.11 Plastics.- Appendix A Identification tables.- A1 Specific gravity.- A2 Refractive index.- A3 Birefringence.- A4 Dispersion.- A5 Hardness.- A6 Cleavage.- A7 Less common and trade names.- Appendix B Useful sources of information.- Appendix C Birthstones.