Picture - Cosmic Polymath

2 DESIGN IN NATURE
Atoms and molecules for the most part display a tendency to assume symmetric forms and to dispose them-
selves in straight lines or in curves ; the curves forming spheres, circles, and spirals, especially the latter. As a
consequence, increase, growth, and development in the inorganic and organic kingdoms proceed in one or other of
the directions indicated.^
§ 2. Straight-Line, Radiating, Concentric and Spiral Formations with Traces of Segmentation.
What I designate straight-line formations produce bodies bounded by plane surfaces ; the curved formations
producing spherical, circular, and spiral structures and modifications thereof. The straight-hne formations are
represented by crystals of every form and variety, crystallites, and dendrites ; the latter branching and assuming
Fii:. 1.—Exquisite crystals of snow as figured
by Sooresby. Illustrate straight-line formations.
a characteristic tree-hke shape, with, in some cases, a certain amount of
segmentation. Crystals are formed by aggregations of atoms and molecules
from without ; the additions, for the most part, being made in straight
lines, and giving rise to plane surfaces bounded by characteristic angles.
Not unfrequently crystals display dendritic, radiating, concentric, and
spiral arrangements.'^
The curved formations are represented by spheres and modifications
of spheres, where the atoms and molecules combine to form bodies having
concentric and spiral arrangements ; the additions being made in suc-
cessive curved layers.
Beautiful examples of straight-line formations are seen in the crystals
of snow, and of the straighb-hne, radiating, and curved formations in
the crystals and conglomerations of hail. In the latter the straight-hne,
radiating, and concentric arrangements are all present. Perhaps no better
illustration of the extraordinary plasticity and power of nature to assume different
shapes and conditions, under slightly altered circumstances, can be given than are
afforded by the structure of snow and hail respectively (Figs. 1 and 2).
Examples of crystals are met with in the organic as well as in the inorganic
kingdom. Crystals, as a rule, are symmetrical, and characterised by great beauty of
outline. They are endless as regards form, and have for the most part an unvary-
ing chemical composition. They occur in the soft snow and in the hardest rocks
and metals. They are deposited in the sohds of certain plants, and in the fluids of
plants and animals, as witness the crystals of sugar, blood, bile, urine, &c.
Typical examples of crystals displaying straight-line, dendritic, radiating, con- Fk;. 2.—Various forms of hail as
centric
and ii.
and spiral arrangements, with traces of segmentation, are given at Plates i.
From a careful examination of the figures in the plates in question it will
figured by AVhitney. A, hailstone
which fell at Bonn in 1822, having a
diameter of an inch and a half, and
be seen that crystals assume a very great variety of form ; the peculiar shape
depending, in man}'^ cases, on the condition, for the time being, of the mother hquid
weighing 300 grains. B, sections of
differently shaped hailstones, showing
a radiating nucleus and concentric
as regards
ventitious
temperature, degree of viscosity, and what may be regarded
circumstances. In other words, crystals, while having a
as ad-
definite
layers. C, section of hailstone with
minute ciystallic pyramids on its surface
displaying a radiating arrange-
chemical composition, and, as a rule, a distinctive form, nevertheless lend themselves
to constructive processes, and admit of modification in accordance with certain
ment. D,
detached.
the erystallic pyramids
laws. When so modified they bear the most extraordinary resemblances to certain plants and animals and parts
thereof (compare Plates
i. and ii. with Plates iii., iv., v.), and support the beUef that the law of increase and
growth applies equally to crystals and to plants and animals ;
and that one design runs through the in-
^ I desire to point out that I employ the terms atom and molecule in their generally accepted sense, without prejudice, and with the
knowledge that some advanced physicists of late years regard the atom as highly divisible. The divisibility of tlie atom does not affect my argument
as developed in the present work, and I keep an open mind on the subject. It only pushes the division of matter to a further point. It
does not jeopardise the existence of matter or the forces which inhere in matter as such : matter and force to the physicist and physiologist are
still realities. They are, as hitherto, indestructible and iixed quantities in the universe. The more minute division of matter is one of detail
j'ather than of principle, and is discussed further on (page 180 : The
visible and invisible worlds ; new theory of matter, &c.).
^ In making these general statements I am aware that crystallisation is a complicated process, and results from various and diverse con-
ditions. Herr 0. Lehman {Zeitschrift fur KrystallograpMe wiul Mineralogie, von P. Groth, vol. i., 1877) traces crystallisation (1) to the evaiioration
of a solution ; (2) to the action of chemical re-agents ; (3) to the solidification of melted masses ; (4) to the condensation of vapours ; (5) to
change of iixed, physical, isometi'ic modification ; and (6) to separation by electrolysis.
Crystals have been divided by Webster into (1) the isometric, which have the axes all equal, as in the cube, octahedron, &c. ; (2) the tetragonal
which have a varying vertical axis, while the lateral are equal, as in the right square prism ; (3) the orthorliomhic, which have the three axes
unequal, as in tlie rectangular and rhombic piisms ; (4) the monodinic, which have one of the intersections oblique, as in the oblique rhombic
])nsm ; (5) the Iriclinic, which have all the three intersections oblique, as in the oblique rhomboidal prism ; and (6) the he:i" (gonal , which have
three equal lateral axes, and a yertieal axis of variable length, as in the hexagonal prism and rhombohedron.