Probable Nature of the Internal Symmetry of Crystals

Abstract

SOME studies pursued by the writer as to the nature of molecules have led him to believe that in the atom-groupings which modern chemistry reveals to us the several atoms occupy distinct portions of space and do not lose their individuality. The object of the present paper is to show how far this conclusion is in harmony with, and indeed to some extent explains, the symmetrical forms of crystals, and the argument may therefore in some sort be considered an extension of the argument for a condition of internal symmetry derived from the phenomena of cleavage.