ON THE POEMATION OF MOSS GOLD AND SILVEE. 133 



This matter is, o£ course, very closely connected with the 

 ordinary metallurgical processes of reduction, but in such manu- 

 facturing operations no effort is made to obtain the metal in the 

 crystallized state ; on the contrary, it is the practice to favour the 

 conversion of the metal into the liquid state as speedily as possible. 



Although, perhaps, there may be no true analogy between the 

 two cases, still it would be very interesting to calculate the 

 amount of force requisite to produce the crystals, supposing 

 that they had been mechanically pulled out like wires through a 

 draw plate, or had been squeezed out through moulds similar to 

 lead tubing. 



I hope at some future date to be in a position to supplement 

 the foregoing preliminary notes upon a question which is of 

 great interest and importance in the chemical geology of mineral 

 veins and deposits, when the series of experiments at present in 

 hand are somewhat nearer completion. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said he could have brought some specimens o£ 

 quartz in which the gold was exactly in the form of wire. In 

 one case this wire was in .the form of a true lover's knot. He 

 was sure what they had heard to-night would lead to the explana- 

 tion of some very curious phenomena. It had been said that 

 volcanic heat melted gold from some previous condition. Now 

 we know that some of our volcanic rocks could not have been at 

 a great heat. In Victoria volcanic rocks lie upon vegetable 

 matter, which has been only dried, not carbonized. If the quartz 

 had been melted, the gold would have been all evaporated. It 

 liad been found that gold was lost in the Mint, and they wondered 

 what had become of it. They swept the roof and the chimneys 

 and found it there. So in certain lead works there had been 

 accomplished a saving of £10,000 a year, by building long 

 chimneys curved and extending . backwards and forwards over 

 some miles length, in which they collected the lead fume which 

 had evaporated. This crystallization at a low temperature 

 would explain many things. It remained a mystery how gold 

 could be twisted and tied into a knot in the solid quartz where it 

 was found. 



Mr. H. C. Russell said he hoped Professor Liversidge would 

 be able to find out how these forms occurred. Crystals form 

 out of very complex fluids. Each substance seems to have the 

 power of taking to itself in crystallization those particles which 

 belong to it, and rejecting those that do not. What we want to 

 know is : liow does the force of crystallization act ? We know it 

 was one of the forces active in forming meteorites from the 

 primitive matter, which, according to the theory of La Place, 

 once existed in the form of gas. And if the investigation which 



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