par divers savants a l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, I^{re}
serie, t. vi., I^{re} partie, 1861); G. A. Palm, _Der Magnet in Alterthum_
(Programm des k. wuerttembergischen Seminars Maulbronn, Stuttgart, {21}
1867). Of these works, those of Klaproth and of Martin are by far the most
important. Klaproth states that in modern Greek, in addition to the name
[Greek: magnetis], the magnet also has the names [Greek: adamas] and
[Greek: kalamita]. The former of these, in various forms, _adamas_,
_adamant_, _aimant_, _yman_, and _piedramon_, has gone into many languages.
Originally the word [Greek: adamas] (the unconquered) was applied by the
Greeks to the hardest of the metals with which they were acquainted, that
is to say, to hard-tempered iron or steel, and it was subsequently because
of its root-signification also given by them to the diamond for the same
reason; it was even given to the henbane because of the deadly properties
of that plant. In the writings of the middle ages, in St. Augustine, St.
Isidore, Marbodeus, and even in Pliny, we find some confusion between the
two uses of _adamas_ to denote the loadstone as well as the diamond.
Certainly the word _adamas_, without ceasing to be applied to the diamond,
also designated the loadstone. At the same time (says Martin) the word
_magnes_ was preserved, as Pliny records, to designate a loadstone of
lesser strength than the _adamas_. On the other hand, the word _diamas_, or
_deamans_, had already in the thirteenth century been introduced into Latin
to signify the diamond as distinguisht from the magnet. _Adamas_ was
rendered _aymant_ in the romance version of the poem of Marbodeus on stones
(see Beckmann's variorum edition of 1799, p. 102), and in this form it was
for a time used to denote both the magnet and the diamond. Then it
gradually became restricted in use to the stone that attracts iron.

Some confusion has also arisen with respect to the Hebrew name of the
magnet. Sir W. Snow Harris makes the following statement (_Magnetism_, p.
5): "In the Talmud it [the loadstone] is termed _achzhab'th_, the stone
which attracts; and in their ancient prayers it has the European name
_magn[=e]s_." On this point Dr. A. Loewy has furnisht the following notes.
The loadstone is termed in one of the Talmudical sections and in the
Midrash, _Eben Shoebeth_ (lapis attrahens). This would of course be written
[Hebrew: 'BN SHW'BT]. Omitting the [Hebrew: W] which marks the parti