108 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



in which they would be placed by the effect of vegetation, 

 or the same as they occupied before the body to which they 

 belonged had been decomposed by the fire ; in short, they 

 form a plant, or the phantom of a plant, which has a per- 

 fect resemblance to the one destroyed. 



That the operators have here mistaken for true vegetable 

 growth the fern-like crystals of the salts which exist in the 

 ashes of all plants is very obvious. Their knowledge of 

 plant structure was exceedingly limited and their micro- 

 scopes were so imperfect that imagination had free scope. 

 As seen under our modern microscopes, there are few pret- 

 tier sights than the crystallization of such salts as sal 

 ammoniac, potassic nitrate, barium chloride, etc. The crys- 

 tals are actually seen to grow and it would not require a 

 very great stretch of the imagination to convince one that 

 the growth is due to a living organism. Indeed, this view 

 has actually been taken in an article which recently ap- 

 peared in a prominent magazine. The writer of that article 

 sees no difference between the mere aggregation of inor- 

 ganic particles brought together by voltaic action and the 

 building up of vital structures under the influence of or- 

 ganic forces. This is simply materialism run mad. 



Perhaps the finest illustration of such crystallization is 

 to be found in the deposition of silver from a solution of 

 the nitrate as seen under the microscope. A drop of the 

 solution is placed on a glass slide and while the observer 

 watches it through a low power, a piece of copper wire or, 

 preferably, a minute quantity of the amalgam of tin and 

 mercury, such as is used for " silvering " cheap looking 

 glasses, is brought into contact with it. Chemical decom- 

 position at once sets in and then the silver thus deposited 

 forms one element of a very minute voltaic couple and 



