I shall only add that Professor Yaeger's theory may be carried farther
yet. Each metal has also a certain taste and odour peculiar to itself;
in other words, they are also endowed with odoriferous substances. And
this may help us to explain the fact that each metal, when crystallizing
out of a liquid solution, invariably assumes a distinct geometrical
form, by which it may be distinguished from any other. Common salt, for
instance, invariably crystallizes in cubes, alum in octohedra, and so
on.
Professor Yaeger's theory explains further to us that other great
mystery of Nature--the transmission from parent to offspring of the
morphological speciality. This is another puzzle of the biologist.
What is there in the embryonal germ that evolves out of the materials
stored up therein a frame similar to the parents? In other words, what
is there that presides over the preservation of the species, working out
the miniature duplicate of the parents' configuration and character? It
is the protoplasm, no doubt; and the female ovum contains protoplasm in
abundance.
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