Book VII The Philosophy of Morphology, Including Crystallography
Crystallization exhibits to us the effects of the natural arrangement of the ultimate particles of various compound bodies; but we are scarcely yet sufficiently acquainted with chemical synthesis and analysis to understand the rationale of this process. The rhomboidal form may arise from the proper position of 4, 6, 8 or 9 globular particles, the cubic form from 8 particles, the triangular form from 3, 6 or 10 particles, the hexahedral prism from 7 particles, &c. Perhaps, in due time we may be enabled to ascertain the number and order of elementary particles, constituting any given compound element, and from that determine the figure which it will prefer on crystallization, and vice versâ.
John Dalton, Chemical Philosophy (1808), p. 210.
BOOK VII.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MORPHOLOGY, INCLUDING CRYSTALLOGRAPHY.