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Birth-Stones: July

The list suggested and adopted in Kansas City reads as follows: Month. Birth-stone. Alternate Stone. January Garnet February Amethyst March Bloodstone Aquamarine April Diamond May Emerald June Pearl Moonstone July Ruby August Sardonyx Peridot September Sapphire October Opal Tourmaline November Topaz December Turquoise Lapis-lazuli Among the many changes in this list from that habitually followed, it will be noted that the ruby is transferred from December to July, changing places with the turquoise, which became the gem of December. This has been favored on the ground that the warmer-colored gem was best adapted for a July birth-stone, while the paler turquoise was best suited to a winter month, when the sun's rays are feeble. The contrary, however, is true; for it is in winter that we seek for warmth, while in the heat of summer nothing is more grateful than coolness. This transposition is, in effect, simply a return to the ordering of these stones in the Polish list, which may perhaps have become popular in Europe in the eighteenth century through Marie Leczinska, the queen of Louis XV. Another undesirable change takes the chrysolite (peridot) from the place it has always occupied as the gem of September, and makes of it an alternate for August, with the sardonyx, while the sapphire, properly the gem for April, is made the birth-stone for September. For October neither the tourmaline nor the opal is as appropriate as the beryl, while for June we should prefer the asteria to the moonstone as a substitute for the pearl. This suggested radical change or violation cannot be permitted. The time-honored ordering is familiar now to all who are interested in the matter, and any change, even if one apparently for the better, is liable to disturb the popular confidence in those who are supposed to be familiar with the subject. Above all, there should be no duplication or triplication of birth-stones for any given month, the choice between a birth-stone or an astral or zodiacal stone or the combination of these affording all the variety that is necessary or should be desired.

As the diamond does not appear to have been known to the ancients and is not given in any of the lists of birth-stones before the last century, and as diamonds, like gold and platinum, may easily be used as accessories to other stones, would it not perhaps be better to omit the diamond from the list of the stones of the months, and rather use these gems as a bordering or other ornate addition to the stone of the month? The pearl, which is not a stone in any sense of the word, should not appear in the list at all; but it can be worn in some device suggesting a sentiment, as, for instance, an emblem of purity, etc.

The tourmaline, as a gem only known in modern times or since the eighteenth century, seems out of place in the list of birth-stones, which ought only to comprise precious or semi-precious stones which have been known and worn from ancient times. "Astral stones" or "zodiacal stones" are terms used to designate those gems which were believed to be peculiarly and mystically related to the zodiacal signs. While these signs constitute a twelve-fold division of the year just as do the months, they do not exactly coincide with the latter as now reckoned, but overlap them, so that the sign Aquarius, for instance, covers the period from January 21 to February 20, that of Pisces from February 21 to March 20, that of Aries, the spring sign, from March 21 to April 20, and so on down to Capricornus, which begins at the winter solstice. Thus, every necessary opportunity is afforded for enlarging the selection of natal stones while preserving the traditional order of those appropriate to the months, an order which in its origin dates back to the early Christian centuries and which, from the close relation with the sacred gems of the Scriptures, it seems almost sacrilegious to violate by arbitrary changes. Then, in addition, we have the "talismanic gems," or the stones of the twelve guardian angels, one set over all those born in each month. Here we have another time-honored list, differing from either of those mentioned above, so that, in almost if not quite every case, each person has the choice between three different stones as "birth-stones," or can have them combined in an artistic jewel so as to profit by all the favorable influences promised by the old authorities. Thus, there is absolutely no excuse for playing fast and loose with an ancient, popular, and quasi-religious belief in the special virtue of one particular stone for each month, and that one the gem long prescribed by usage.

As it might seem appropriate that one born in the United States should wear a gem from among those which our country furnishes, the following list was some time since prepared by the writer, not in any sense as a substitute for the real birth-stones, but as possible accessory gems (when they were not identical), gems which might be worn from a spirit of patriotism. Of course where the stone in question is really that traditionally recommended, the fact that it is at the same time an American gem-stone is an added argument in its favor.