Relations and Transformations of Energy 25 



The formation then of ternary and quaternary chemical 

 compounds of crystalloid character, which might again become 

 mixed by fusion with other compounds to form the granitic 

 and other igneous rocks, seems to represent the highest and 

 most stable result of electric, of electro-chemical or electro- 

 thermal action. If then a further advance were possible, alike 

 in the more perfect condensation of energj^ and in the upbuilding 

 of more complex molecules in relation thereto, such advance 

 would only seem likely by the production of some more con- 

 centrated but tenacious kind of energy, and of a more elastic 

 type of molecule, that the energy might traverse and be held 

 in, in large part, as an intra-molecular reserve. Such seems 

 to be presented in the capacity for colloid formation possessed 

 by some elements, and for the upbuilding of the colloid mole- 

 cule already dealt with (p. 15). 



Reference has been made to some of the inorganic colloid 

 bodies. Since they are all formed only in presence of water 

 or other light liquids, they can only have originated long after 

 complex crystalline bodies had been formed in the earth's 

 crust by electric or by lower forms of energy. Thus, during 

 Arldt's anhydrate period (p. 12) in the earth's history, they 

 must have been entirely absent, and only during the inorganic 

 period succeeding, that Arldt roughly estimates as extending 

 through 120 millions of years, would necessary conditions at 

 times occur for their formation. 



From the experiments of Muck and Tommasi the colloid 

 red and yellow ferric hydrate can be obtained by treating 

 ferric salts with alkalies, or by oxidation of ferrous salts. The 

 former process must have occurred in nature before, or apart 

 from, the presence of terrestrial organisms, but, as will be 

 stated later, much of the colloid iron that has produced the 

 beds of bog-iron ore or limonite, as well as haematite, was due 

 to the oxidizing energy of plant organisms amid swam])y 

 marshes, into which iron oxides had been washed. From the 

 red ferric hydrate Ruff has also obtained like iron ores by heating 

 it in presence of water under a pressure of 5000 atmosi)lieres. 



Colloid silicic acid must also have been formed in nature 

 apart from — though more abundantly by — organisms, as must 



