136 life's beginning on the earth 



Cobalt salts, for instance, if placed in waterglass, germinate 

 into slender blue stems which develop pink buds at the 

 top. Iron salts produce striking structures with slender 

 budded stems that shoot up in a few seconds. 



This technique was developed by Dr. Stephane Leduc of 

 Nantes, France who has studied and photographed a large 

 number of such artificial osmotic structures. He certainly 

 deserves recognition for demonstrating what amazing forms 

 can be produced artificially by osmotic forces. The pic- 

 tures taken by St. Leduc here reproduced (Figs. 40-45) 

 give only a faint notion of the wealth and variety of forms 

 which he produced in the laboratories and of their close 

 resemblance to genuine vital growth. 



9. THE IMITATION OF THE FORM OF CERTAIN PLANTS AND 

 ANIMALS BY ARTIFICIAL OSMOTIC STRUCTURES; INFLUENCE 

 OF GRAVITY UPON ARTIFICIAL GROWTH 



Artificial mushrooms, unbelievably similar in appearance 

 to natural ones, will grow in a solution of soda inseminated 

 with pieces of lime salts. On top of this soda solution we 

 carefully superimpose a layer of distilled water in such a 

 way that the distilled water floats upon the heavier soda 

 solution without mixing with it. As the pieces of lime salt 

 begin to grow in the soda solution, they first form what 

 looks like the stem of a mushroom. As soon as this stem 

 has risen to the level of the superimposed water layer, it 

 spreads and forms what looks like a hood. Since the super- 

 imposed water layer contains very little of the dissolved 

 materials, the difference in osmotic pressure between the 

 inside and the outside of the stem is much greater when the 

 growth rises into the water. This explains the spreading 

 and the formation of the hood. (This is the technique of 

 Stephane Leduc (Fig. 46).) 



The resemblance of these structures to real mushrooms is 



