y showed in 1845 (_Experimental Researches_, vol. iii.)
that while practically all natural substances are indeed acted upon by a
sufficiently strong magnetic pole, it is only a comparatively small
number that are attracted like iron, the great majority being repelled.
Bodies of the latter class were termed by Faraday _diamagnetics_. The
strongest diamagnetic substance known is bismuth, its susceptibility
being--0.000014, and its permeability 0.9998. The diamagnetic quality of
this metal can be detected by means of a good permanent magnet, and its
repulsion by a magnetic pole had been more than once recognized before
the date of Faraday's experiments. The metals gold, silver, copper,
lead, zinc, antimony and mercury are all diamagnetic; tin, aluminium and
platinum are attracted by a very strong pole. (See MAGNETISM.)

DIAMANTE, FRA, Italian fresco painter, was born at Prato about 1400. He
was a Carmelite friar, a member of the Florentine community of that
order, and was the friend and assistant of Filippo Lippi. The Carmelite
convent of Prato which he adorned with many works in fresco has been
suppressed, and the buildings have been altered to a degree involving
the destruction of the paintings. He was the principal assistant of Fra
Filippo in the grand frescoes which may still be seen at the east end of
the cathedral of Prato. In the midst of the work he was recalled to
Florence by his conventual superior, and a minute of proceedings of the
commune of Prato is still extant, in which it is determined to petition
the metropolitan of Florence to obtain his return to Prato,--a proof
that his share in the work was so important that his recall involved the
suspension of it. Subsequently he assisted Fra Filippo in the execution
of the frescoes still to be seen in the cathedral of Spoleto, which Fra
Diamante completed in 1470 after his master's death in 1469. Fra Filippo
left a son ten years old to the care of Diamante, who, having received
200 ducats from the commune of Spoleto, as the balance due for the work
done in the cathedral, returned with the child to Florence, and, as
Vasari says, bought land for himself with the money, giving but a small
portion to the child. The accusation of wrong-doing, however, would
depend upon the share of the work executed by Fra Diamante, and the
terms of his agreement with Fra Filippo. Fra Diamante must have been
nearly seventy when he completed the frescoes at Spoleto, but the exact
year o