ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY^ MICKOSOOPY, ETC. 191 



colloid condition on the outside, and shot out tubular prolongations, 

 colloidial and cellular, which grew at the rate of half an inch in 

 twenty-four hours. Some attained to 2 in. in length, and were about 

 l-12th in. in diameter. All these prolongations shot out a number of 

 slender filaments from various points of their surface, and these attained 

 a length of a few inches in a few hours. After a few days or weeks all 

 these assume a crystalline condition and become empty inside. Some 

 of them rise to the surface of the liquid. They are insoluble in 

 water, remain intact when exposed to air, and when introduced in a 

 newly-prepared flask at the same time with fresh fragments, they 

 hasten the metamorphosis of the latter. The addition of water to the 

 soluble glass renders the experiments more easy and saves time. 



Watched under the Microscope, the fragments of sulphate of iron 

 are seen to swell all around. An unctuous colloid mass is formed, 

 which consists of fine granules perfectly similar to animal tissues. 

 This mass stretches into prolongations, and fluid contents are seen to 

 flow inside them. When the surface of some prolongations was opened, 

 a semi-solid substance grew out of the opening into new prolongations. 

 One of these mineral organisms, when placed on a fresh fragment, 

 shot out new prolongations, as if real grafting had taken place. 



" Organisms " of sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, alum, phos- 

 phate of iron, &c., were similarly obtained, each possessing a form 

 peculiar to itself and distinct from the others. Analogous forms 

 grew in saccharated lime-water. Cellular bodies of the same mineral 

 formed in solutions of alkaline carbonates. 



The following we transcribe verbatim from the report of the 

 meeting at which the paper was read : — 



" These experiments relate to the almost unknown department of 

 chemistry which treats of colloids, and as crystalline solutions grow 

 into symmetrical crystals, so a colloid substance in process of forma- 

 tion assumes a typical form, and must be the start of all forms in 

 animals and plants. These so-called mineral organisms, viewed with 

 the naked eye and the Microscope, or chemically tested, come as near 

 to the lower animals and plants as these are from one another, and 

 form a new field of investigation for the biologist. We can no longer 

 say that only living things grow, unless we reckon these as living. 



" Among the conclusions of Dr. Valin's paper were these : ' That 

 the vitality of growth of these mineral organisms consists in the 

 passage of a crystal into a colloid, and is thus correlated, but not 

 identical, with the kinetic process known as crystallization. That 

 the molecule of the bodies consists of many elements, and that acid 

 and alkaline polarities are always concerned in their growth, for only 

 acid minerals in alkaline solutions gave rise to them. That we have 

 a right to suppose that living protoplasm is nothing but a highly 

 complex mineral organism in favourable media (water and air).' 



" This would tend to confirm the growing belief among biologists, 

 that life is nothing but the energy manifested by the forty and odd 

 (Eeinke) proximate principles which constitute protoplasm, when they 

 pass from the crystalline or soluble into the colloid state in the 

 proper media." 



