382 ANNUAL REPORT SMlTHSONIAISr IKSTITUTION, 1016. 



coupled with its resistance to the action of acids and most solvents, 

 renders it peculiarly well suited for this purpose. 



A rather baleful use, at one time more extensive than at present, 

 thanks to our pure-food laws, and reminding us of the " earth 

 eaters " previously mentioned, was the employment of diatom earth 

 as an adulterant of candies. A large diatomaceous earth deposit 

 in the eastern United States which formerly did a thriving business 

 fflong this line has been practically abandoned at the present time, 

 because certain candy manufacturers who used this substance have 

 been compelled to resort to other means for cheapening their prod- 

 uct. It is only to be hoped that the substitute, whatever it is, is as 

 little harmful to the consumer as was the diatom material. 



It seems right to revert to the artistic beauty of these minute 

 organisms, mentioned at the opening of this article, because their 

 economic importance should not exclude their practical value to the 

 arts in the matter of designs. Those who are familiar with these 

 organisms find their great beauty consists not only in the delicate 

 and complex tracery of their surfaces, surpassing in this respect the 

 most ingenious arabesques of the Moor, but in the symmetry and 

 great diversity of form and outline displayed by the members of this 

 group. Nearly every symmetrical figure possible to curves and 

 straight lines is represented in the diatoms. Elongated forms of 

 graceful sigmoid structures, like Plogarth's line of beauty; thin 

 crescents, like the face of the new moon; triangles, rigidly exact or 

 varied by all graduations in the curvature or undulations of their 

 sides and by the blunted or keenly sharpened character of their 

 angles; spindles and ellipses of every variety of breadth and con- 

 vexity ; squares ; double squares ; stars, from five to twenty pointed ; 

 circles, so accurate in their periphery as to correct the errors of the 

 most perfect mathematical instruments; and combinations of these 

 fundamental figures are to be seen in great abundance. It comes 

 about from these qualities that the diatoms have a suggestiveness 

 in the matter of design that should render them of great value to 

 certain kinds of the mechanical arts. Jewelers, though they might 

 well despair of copying the elaborate perfection of some of these 

 forms, could doubtless obtain useful suggestions for new figures in 

 ornamentation. Manufacturers of articles of artistic quality, such 

 as laces, wall papers, printed fabrics, oilcloths, etc., have ready- 

 made in this gallery of art, the diatom flora, new and better ideas 

 in designing; and, although the difficulty of obtaining and pre- 

 paring diatom material for examination will limit their use in this 

 field to some extent, the expense and toil of studying these objects 

 would in many cases be well repaid. 



At the risk of stretching a little the legitimate meaning of the title 

 of this article, I wish to mention an element of importance connected 



