MOLECULAR COALESCENCE/^ ETC. 219 



On " Molecular Coalescence/' and on the Influence 

 Exercised by Colloids upon the Forms of Inorganic 

 Matter. By W. M. Ord, M.B. Lend., M.R.C.P., 

 Lecturer on Physiology at St. Thomas's HospitaL (With 

 Plates XV & XVI). 



Those who are acquainted with Mr. Rainey's researches 

 will not find a great deal of new matter in the preliminary 

 communication by Professor Harting, of Utrecht, on the 

 " Artificial Production of some of the Principal Organic 

 Calcareous Formations/' which appeared in last quarterns 

 number of this Journal. 



But finding in Professor Harting's paper no mention of 

 Mr. Rainey, and inferring from this circumstance that the 

 Professor is not acquainted with Mr. Rainey's work in the 

 field of " Synthetical Morphology/' I conclude that on the 

 continent, as at home, this work has not met with the notice 

 and appreciation it deserves. I have thought, therefore, 

 that a general account of Mr. Rainey^s investigations, and a 

 more particular one of later inquiries founded upon them, 

 might interest and inform some of the readers of this Journal, 

 and perhaps stimulate to further development the method of 

 research by synthesis. 



In the number of this Journal for January, 1858, Mr, 

 Rainey published some of his observations, but later in the 

 same year he put before the world a complete statement of 

 his experiments and conclusions in the form of a book, " On 

 the Mode of Formation of Shells of Animals, of Bone, and of 

 several other Structures by a process of Molecular Coalescence, 

 demonstrable by certain artificially formed products." In 

 the preface to this book, dated October, 1858, he lays claim 

 to originality in respect of — first, a process by which carbo- 

 nate of lime can be made to assume a globular form, and the 

 explanation of the nature of the process, " molecular coal- 

 escence," by which that form is produced; second, the ex- 

 planation of the probable cause of crystallisation, and the 

 manner in which the rectilinear form of crystals is effected ; 

 third, the discovery of a process of " molecular disintegra- 

 tion " of the globules of carbonate of lime, by inverting the 

 mechanical conditions upon which their previous globular 

 form had depended ; fourth, the recognition in animal 

 tissues of forms of earthy matter analogous to those produced 

 artificially ; and, fifth, the deduction from the above fact 

 and considerations of the dependence of the rounded forms of 



