Formation and Polarisation of Crystals.
The inorganic kingdom will afford to the microscopist a never-ending number of objects of unsurpassed beauty and interest. The phenomena of crystallisation in its varied combinations can be made a useful and instructive occupation. Although ignorant of the means whereby the great majority of minerals and crystals have been formed in the vast laboratory of Nature, we can, nevertheless, imitate in a small degree Nature’s handiworks by crystallising out a large number of substances, and watch their numerous transformations in the smallest appreciable quantities, when aided by the microscope.
Among natural crystals we look for the material for the formation of our lenses, while the varieties of granites present us with the earliest crystallised condition of the earth’s crust as it cooled down, the structure of which is beautifully exhibited under polarised light. In [Plate VIII]. various crystalline and other bodies are displayed. In No. 158 is a section of new red sandstone; 159 of quartz; and 160 of granite. Special reference is made to others in the following list of salts and other substances which form a beautiful series of objects for study under polarised light:—