Deposits in Metastable Inorganic Hydrosols. 



27 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Fig. 1. — Deposit from Tube No. 8. ( x 250.) After autoclaving for 15 minutes at 

 105-115° C. 



Fig. 2. — Deposit from Tube No. 4. ( x 250.) Autoclaved previously, 105-115° C. 

 Fig. 3. — Symmetrically Arranged Deposit from Tube No. 7. ( x 250.) Not really crystal- 

 line. Autoclaved. 



Fig. 4. — Coarse Feathery Deposit from Tube No. 17. ( x 250.) Autoclaved. 



Fig. 5. — Fine Deposit from Tube No. 5. ( x 250.) Autoclaved. 



Fig. 6. — Deposit from Tube No. 7. ( x 250.) Autoclaved. 



Fig. 7. — Hyphaj-like Deposit from Tube No. 20. ( x 240.) Autoclaved. 



Fig. 8.— Fine Deposit, Tube 20. C x 240.) Autoclaved. 



Fig. 9. — Long Looped Fibre from " Colourless ' : Solution. Metastable silica only. ( x 440.) 

 Autoclaved. 



Fig. 10. — Mixed Deposit in " Yellow " Solution. Metastable silica and ferric hydrate. 



( x 240.) Autoclaved. 

 Fig. 11. — Hyphee-like Deposit in Yellow Solution. ( x 240.) Autoclaved. 



The Production of Growths or Deposits in Metastable Inorganic 



Hydrosols. 

 By Prof. Benjamin Moore, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



(Received February 6, 1915.) 



[Plates 2 and 3.] 



The results described in the preceding paper conducted me to the study of 

 other methods for obtaining these growths. 



The fundamental law established by Pasteur, and now universally con- 

 firmed, that organic growth cannot occur in sterilised organic media, leaves a 

 curious hiatus between inorganic evolution and organic evolution. 



It is a remarkable historical fact that organic evolution was firmly established 

 a full generation before inorganic evolution, and that, with the exception of 

 certain ingenious hypotheses, the theory and facts of inorganic evolution have 

 only been partially ascertained in late years. 



The problem presents two distinct yet closely related lines of attack. One 

 concerns the method by which organic compounds can be built up from 

 inorganic sources, and is more purely a question of energy-transformation ; the 

 other is related to the morphology, or minute anatomy, in the region lying 

 between the inorganic and the organic, and deals with the colloidal inorganic 

 forms preceding the organic structures. Energy-transformations, although of 



