272 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
of “feeding” the growing solids that they may attain a relatively 
considerable size. 
In what form do we see the crystal with the aid of the highest 
magnifying power? Does it present from the first the form that it 
will have later? The biologists were the first to take up the matter 
of the formation of the crystalline “ germ;” that is, of the form 
which it presents at the instant when it first becomes visible; and 
most of them have admitted the existence of an embryonic state, or a 
state in which the constitution and form are different from that of 
the crystal properly called; although this idea has been contradicted 
by Frankenheim, to whom we owe numerous crystallogenic observa- 
tions. Vogelsang, in 1867, took it up again and made numerous in- 
genious and varied experiments to show its correctness. His observa- 
tions are generally exact, but he has unfortunately misinterpreted 
them. To show the embryonic state of the crystal, Vogelsang tried 
to make the bodies crystallize under special conditions with the pur- 
pose of retarding their formation so as to enable him to observe all 
the steps of development. With this purpose in view he added to a 
sulphur solution a viscous body, Canada balsam. There were pro- 
duced little spheres, to which Vogelsang gave the name of globulites, 
and which were thought to represent an embryonic stage. These 
globulites unite to form particular groups, each of which has received 
a special name, and at the expense of which the crystal would be 
produced only at a later stage. 
Moreover, Vogelsang rests his experimental researches on observa- 
tions made with crystallites of varied forms existing in a few rocks 
rich in silica and more or less vitreous, and in the slags of blast 
furnaces; but as was later shown by M. O. Lehmann, who made 
numerous researches on the formation of crystals, these globulites are 
but drops supersaturated with sulphur, and consequently have noth- 
ing in common with the crystalline state. 
Brame, as well as Vogelsang, studied sulphur, but in a molten 
condition. He observed little supermelted drops (utricules) to which 
he attributes a considerable role in crystallization. His ideas differ 
from those of Vogelsang, but nothing in his experiments substantiates 
the existence of an embryonic state. 
The observations of M. O. Lehmann have shown that the crystal 
possesses from. the beginning a form identical with that which it has 
when it has attained larger dimensions. T. V. Richard and E. H. 
Archibald have employed the cinematograph to follow out the for- 
mation of the crystal, and obtained only figures of completely formed 
individuals. 
I myself have made a great many experiments, and have always 
found that the first visible particle had all the properties of the 
crystal. It is, nevertheless, not to be disputed that in some cases 
