580 DOLBEAR. [VoL. II. 
from the other, but still symmetrical, and therefore capable of 
growing a symmetrical shape. 
This has probably been carried far enough to show what was 
intended ; namely, that because the atoms of matter are vibrating, 
and for all matter within our experience a long way above abso- 
lute zero, and because the motions of matter are known to affect 
the ether in a manner that depends upon the character of the 
motion, it follows that each atom has a field the shape of which, 
and the strength of which, must depend upon the kind of motion 
it has and the energy involved; that vibrating motions affect 
the density of the ether in different directions about the atom, 
and result in a pressure towards it, and on account of the 
harmonic motions, there are stationary nodes where atoms may 
cohere together, forming symmetrical figures of molecules and 
larger masses of crystals, each of which in its turn has a field 
which is the resultant of the combined fields of its constituents. 
It is the reaction of this field upon other molecules that organizes 
them into the larger geometrical shapes, and tends to replace 
upon imperfect crystals the parts that have been removed or 
which are not symmetrical with the rest—a phenomenon that 
has been observed. 
The reaction of a field upon a body within it is recognized in 
the familiar phenomena of heat ; for the ether waves that have 
been produced by a hot body compel other molecules, which 
these waves meet, to vibrate like those that produced the waves. 
The earth is heated by the sun for this reason. 
Whenever the ether is put into a condition of motion or of an 
abnormal stress through the motions of atoms and molecules, 
other atoms and molecules must adapt themselves to the abnor- 
mal condition by adopting the motions, or changing their posi- 
tion, or both, the tendency always being to assume the condition 
of the original disturbing body. This explains why it is that a 
certain molecular combination possesses the ability to aid in the 
formation of other similar molecules, a property exhibited by 
the simplest as well as the most complex molecules, in non- 
living as well as living organisms. 
The foregoing explanation of the organization of atoms into 
molecules, and molecules into crystalline forms, is made to 
depend upon the freedom of such bodies to assume their geo- 
metrical positions, such as gases and liquids permit; but it must 
