Some Recent Experiments on the Crystallisation of Supersaturated Saline Solutions ¹

Abstract

THE history of the various views held by different experimenters on the nuclear action of substances in exciting the sudden crystallisation of a supersaturated solution, has been already so well described by Mr. Charles Tomlinson, Prof. Liversidge, Prof. Grenfell, and others in their several papers upon the subject, that it is unnecessary to enter into any detailed description of their opinions; suffice it to say that they may be divided into two classes: the first holding the opinion that the crystallisation may be excited by the presence of certain fatty, oily, greasy, or other matters in the form of films; the second that the initial cause of the crystallisation must be sought for in the entrance of a particle of the same salt as that which is in solution.