The general belief that only organic beings have the power of
reproducing lost parts has been disproved by the experiments of Jordan
on crystals. An octohedral crystal of alum was fractured; it was then
replaced in a solution, and after a few days its injury was seen to be
repaired. The whole crystal had of course increased in size; but the
increase on the broken surface had been so much greater that a perfect
octohedral form was regained.--_G. H. Lewes._
This remarkable power possessed by crystals, in common with animals,
of repairing their own injuries had, however, been thus previously
referred to by Paget, in his _Pathology_, confirming the experiments
of Jordan on this curious subject: “The ability to repair the damages
sustained by injury ... is not an exclusive property of living beings;
for even crystals will repair themselves when, after pieces have been
broken from them, they are placed in the same conditions in which they
were first formed.”