The color typically associated with Topaz in its use as a gem is yellow. Yet the mineral species exhibits many other shades of color, which, when present in crystals of sufficient clearness and purity, answer equally well for gem purposes. These other shades, most of which are represented in the accompanying plate, are grayish, greenish, bluish and reddish. Topaz may also be quite colorless. The yellow color of the Brazilian Topaz can be changed by heating to a pale rose pink and the gem is often treated in this way. The degree of heat employed is not high, and both heating and cooling must be performed gradually. Warming in a sand bath at a low red heat is the method usually employed, or the stone may be wrapped in German tinder and the latter set on fire. Only stones of a brown yellow color yield the pink; the pale yellow stones turn white when so treated. Once the pink color is obtained it is permanent. The natural colors of Topaz are in general perfectly durable, although some of the deep wine yellow Topazes from Russia fade on exposure to daylight. Topaz is infusible before the blowpipe. It is not affected by hydrochloric acid, but is partially decomposed by sulphuric acid and then yields hydrofluoric acid. If the latter experiment is tried in a closed glass tube the formation of the hydrofluoric acid is made evident by the etching and clouding of the walls of the tube. The powdered stone should be mixed with acid sulphate of potash for this experiment. The powdered mineral, when heated with cobalt nitrate, assumes a fine blue color, due to the alumina which it contains. One of the most convenient means of distinguishing Topaz from other stones used to imitate it is through its property of becoming electric by heat, friction or pressure. This electrical condition is evidenced, as in the case of tourmaline, by the power the stone acquires to pick up and hold bits of tissue paper, straws, etc. Sometimes the friction from merely rubbing the stone between the fingers will be sufficient to produce this electrical condition, while many Brazilian Topazes, if simply pressed between the fingers, especially in the direction of the prismatic axis, become electric. The electrical condition often persists from twenty-four to thirty hours. The crystals of Topaz belong to the orthorhombic system of crystallization. They are usually elongated in the direction of the prism and have sharp, bright faces. They vary much in size and often are large. One crystal weighing twenty-five pounds was found in Siberia.