Deposited from Metastable Solutions of Inorganic Colloids. 19 



symmetrical and beautiful forms resembling those of lower aquatic animals 

 may be reproduced by the action of such osmotic energy forms. 



The experiments to be recorded in this paper follow much more closely, 

 however, the lines of those devised by Dr. Charlton Bastian,* and there is an 

 essential difference between the two types. 



The forms obtained by the other observers depend upon diffusion effects 

 between highly different solutions placed in close juxtaposition, and so 

 producing steep gradients of variation of concentration with attendant rapid 

 osmotic pressure changes. One of the two solutions is usually a hydrosol as 

 in the Quincke and Leduc experiments, and the other is a fairly concen- 

 trated crystalloidal solution or a solid mass of crystals, which reacts with 

 this, producing a precipitation membrane across which -■ the diffusive actions 

 occur. Fluctuations in deposition of this membrane and accidental varia- 

 tions in its thickness and resistance at various points, mainly account for 

 the wonderful forms obtained. Here, doubtless, a great deal of the varia- 

 tions in effect are clue to the rate of formation of the hydrogel and its 

 subsequent alterations in properties after formation as degree of aggregation 

 changes. 



But in Bastian's type of experiment, there is no formation of a membrane, 

 and no osmotic pressure or diffusion velocity effects arise. The two solutions 

 are thoroughly mixed up from the outset, but in such proportions that the 

 system is just metastable, and so that a deposit is very slowly formed. As 

 will be pointed out later, in describing the details of making up the colloidal 

 solutions, these are just the conditions reached by following the instructions- 

 given by Dr. Bastian. 



At the outset it is desirable to state that it is our intention to deal only 

 with the peculiar and interesting forms in which growths appear in such 

 metastable solutions of inorganic colloids, and to leave for the moment on 

 one side the larger question as to whether actual living organisms appear in 

 them. The growths we have observed increase in many cases when left in 

 ringed solutions for some days between slide and coverslip. But we may 

 say that we have not been able to obtain experimental evidence that they 

 contain organic carbon compounds, and have not been able to sub-culture 

 them in other media, as has been claimed by Dr. Bastian in regard to his 

 experiments. 



The deposits or growths stain with dyes, such as methylene blue, but this, 

 in our opinion, is not evidence that they are organic, for inorganic colloids 

 also adsorb dyestuffs readily and give a staining effect. The growths we 



* See 'The Origin of Life,' by H. Charlton Bastian, M.D., F.E.S., Watts & Co., 

 London, 1911. 



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