Crystals may be "killed" by a strong electrical discharge--that is, they are so affected that they disintegrate, their atoms separating to form new combinations, just as is the case with the "bodies" of higher forms of life. Some scientists have gone so far as to claim that they had discovered something akin to rudimentary sex-action in certain crystals, resembling the sex-process of the lowest plant-life. But this has not, as yet, been positively established, although it seems probable and reasonable. A recent writer in one of the magazines has said, "Crystallization, as we are to learn now, is not a mere mechanical grouping of dead atoms. It is a birth." This may seem mere "scientific poetry" until the process of crystallization is carefully studied, when it will be seen to give evidence, not only of something like vital and mental action, but also something very much like reproductive functioning of the lower forms of "life." There is an "assimilation" of material to build up the crystal in the first place, just as an animal assimilates matter to build up its shell--or a tree to form its bark. The "form" of the crystal is truly its "body," and behind and _in that body there is "something at work" that is not the body, but which is forming it_. And, later on, that crystal increases in size, and then begins to separate into two, throwing off a smaller crystal, identical in form with the parent crystal. This manner of reproduction is almost identical with the process of reproduction in the lower forms of "life," which consist merely of a like separation of the parent form into two, and the throwing off of the offspring. The principal difference between the growth of crystals and of the Monera, is that the Crystals grow by absorbing fresh matter and attaching it to their outer surface, while the Monera grow by absorbing fresh material and growing outwardly, from within. But this may be accounted for by the difference in the density of their bodies, the Crystal being very solid, while the Monera is like a thin jelly. If the Crystal had a soft interior, it could grow like the Monera or Diatom, _but then it would be a Diatom_. The process of crystallization is accountable only by the theory that in the crystal there exists something like life and Mentation. There is something more than mere "mechanical motion," or blind chance at work here. Does not the process of crystallization look like rudimentary purposive action? It may be said that it is movement and action in accordance with some established "Law of Nature"--granted, but is not that also true of the physical processes and growth of higher forms of life? Is the forming of the Crystal-form to be considered as a "mechanical effect," and the forming of the "shell" of the Monera to be considered a "mental and vital action?" If so, wherefore?