The Crystal Foreshadows the Plant.
One of the remarkable attributes of a crystal is its ability to grow and act as a unit, as if it had a life of its own, despite the evident variety and great number of its parts. Take a crystal of alum, break off a corner and then immerse the broken mass in its mother liquor; at once the crystal will repair itself, new molecules building themselves into its structure as if they knew where to go. This unity of effect may be observed during a northern winter on a scale much more striking. In cold weather on a large sheet of plate glass exposed as a window, a frost pattern will extend itself as if a tree, beautiful branches spreading themselves from a main stem which may be seven feet in height. It is altogether probable that polar forces, such as we observe in the magnet, are here at work. Their harmony of effect, in spaces comparatively vast, is astonishing. Forces of allied character rise to a plane yet higher in vegetation, culminating in the magnificent sequoia of California, whose life, measured by thousands of years, goes back almost to the dawn of human civilization. The union of tools, levers, wheels, as an organized machine; the co-ordination in research of the parts to be played by observers, recorders, depicters, generalizers; the regimentation of soldiers, so that all march, advance and fire as one man under the control of a single will, is prefigured in the forces which make a unit of every crystal of saltpetre in a soldier’s cartridge-box. Of all the characteristics of matter none is more pervasive and more marvelous than its ability to form a unit which moves and acts as if no part were separable from any other, while manifesting a highly complicated structure, with functions at once intricate and co-ordinate.
A
Alum crystal.
B
After a part has been
broken off.
C
Restored by immersion
in alum solution.
From photographs by Herr Hugo Schmidt, Hackley School, Tarrytown, N. Y.