The formation and constitution of crystals of lead salts containing water-soluble colloid

Abstract
The influence of small amounts of dissolved foreign substances on the growth of crystals from saturated solutions has been the subject of much investigation. Usually the added substances have been electrolytes. Dyestuffs have not been neglected, but with some few exceptions comparatively little attention has been given to the effect of non-ionized water-soluble electrolytes such as gelatine or dextrine. As a rule, the presence of the foreign substances is found to cause the crystals to assume a different habit. Whenever this occurs the absorption must have occurred on certain crystal-faces in preference to others, but, although the added material is active by virtue of its close attachment to such faces, it is rarely found to be incorporated into the solid to any great extent. The growing crystals appear to reject the impurity—thrusting it outwards as the growth advances. The action of water-soluble colloids on the halides and certain other salts of lead is exceptional in several ways. Although when such colloids are present in small concentrations one can generally observe a modification of habit, at higher concentrations there may be little selective adsorption, and the result may be a rounded crystal on which no plane faces at all can be distinguished, as if the forces by which atoms are attracted to the structure had been equalized in every direction.

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