LAPIS LAZULI derives its name from the Latin word Lapis, a stone, and the Arabic Azul, blue. It has been variously written as Zumemo Lazuli, Zemech Lazarilli, Stellatus, Lapis Lazary, Lapis Coelestus, the Azure Gem, the Armenian Stone, Lapis Lazari. Its composition includes for the greater part silica and alumina, with soda, lime, iron, sulphuric acid, sulphur, chlorine and water. It is assumed to be a product of contact metamorphism, and is described by Pliny as “opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold” (yellow pyrites). It is found in Persia, Tartary, China, Thibet and Siberia. Badakhshan or Budukhshan in Central Asia is famous for its Lapis Lazuli mines in which, it is recorded, the rock is split with the help of fire. The stone is often found in tints of green, red, violet, or colourless, but these may be termed varieties. The miners of Budukhshan call the blue Lapis “Nili,” the sky-blue “Asmani,” and the blue-green tints “Sabzi.” Some of the finest lajward (lapis lazuli) is sent from the Persian markets whence formerly specimens of rare beauty were exposed for sale at the fairs of Nijni-Novgorod. From very remote times Persia supplied the ancient world with the greatest quantities of lajward. The “sapphirus” of old is the Lapis Lazuli of today, and it is recommended that the 26th chapter of The Book of the Dead should be recited before a deific figure cut from this stone. As early as 1500 years before Christ we have a record that the Lapis Lazuli placed on the neck of a sick child reduced fever. Many of the Egyptian priests wore images formed from the stone which was regarded as an emblem of the heavens. Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, at the latter part of the 4th century, quotes from older sources the tradition that the tables of the Law of Moses were written on two blocks of Lapis Lazuli, which is identified as the eleventh stone of the magic Breastplate. In the ceremonies of the Temple of Heaven in China, ornaments of LIU-LI (Lapis Lazuli) were used, and the Chinese sacred writings record how at one time the priest-kings bore it as an offering to the Lord of the Universe. In accordance with the desire of Catherine II of Russia her favourite room in the Zarskoe Selo palace was adorned with lapis lazuli, symbolic of the country she governed, and amber, as a symbol of herself. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered a piece of Lapis Lazuli—the stone of Heaven—as the most fitting distinction to bestow for personal bravery. It was regarded as a true stone of friendship and of the affection arising from friendship. Ancient physicians regarded this gem as of potent value in eye troubles, one old prescription advising that a specimen be placed in a bowl of water, warm but not hot, for the space of some few minutes, and then that the eye affected be bathed in the water which must be as pure as can be obtained. The stone was also valued if placed, just warm, on swellings or seats of pain. It was also