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 Let us return to generation, properly so called, and find in it the characteristics of brute bodies and of crystals.

The Sowing of Micro-organisms.—When a microbiologist wishes to propagate a species of micro-organisms, he places in a culture medium a few individuals (one is all that is actually necessary), and soon observes their rapid multiplication. Usually, if only the ordinary microbes in atmospheric dust are wanted, the operator need not trouble to charge the culture; if the culture tube remains open and the medium is suitably chosen, some germ of a common species will fall in and the liquid will become colonized. This has the appearance of spontaneous generation.

The Sowing of Crystals.—Concentrated solutions of various substances, supersaturated solutions of sodium magnesium sulphate, and sodium chlorate are also wonderful culture media for certain mineral organic units—certain crystalline germs. Ch. Dufour, experimenting with water cooled below 0° C., its point of solidification; Ostwald, with salol kept below 39°.5, its point of fusion; Tammann, with betol, which melts at 96°; and, before them, Gernez, with melted phosphorus and sulphur—all these physicists have shown that liquids in superfusion are also media specially appropriate for the culture and propagation of certain kinds of crystalline individuals.

Some of these facts have become classic. Lowitz showed in 1785 that a solution of sodium sulphate could be concentrated by evaporation so as to contain more salt than was conformable with the temperature, without, however, depositing the excess. But if a solid fragment, a crystal of salt, is thrown into the