CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING FORM IN CAPILLARY-DYNAMIC TESTS
The variety and abrupt changes in form and color that often appear in the daily test were at first bewildering. What caused the sap of mistletoe picked for instance on February 2, 1957 on Plate 4 to be so different in form quality from that from the same bush at the same time the day before ? What shaped the outstanding form in the middle of the picture of February 5? Why were most of these pictures so full of strong and varied form when others like those of July 1955 on Plate 3 were almost formless ? In addition to the question as to why the forms changed came the query as to the meaning of different types of form. For example the up-thrust forms that appeared so often in July 1957 on Plate 7
The appearance of the test pictures can be described more or less adequately, but such descriptions alone are uninteresting, and as unconnected observations lead nowhere. Descriptions based on subjective or imaginary impressions may satisfy the individual making them, but have no real general worth and may even degrade the method. Some basis of objective evaluation had to found, so that the capillary dynamic plant test could be accepted as a new but scientific method. Looking back, the only step to gain real insight into the nature of the forms in the pictures was taken: it was the step of deliberately varying the conditions in a way that influenced the forms. The quality of the sap on a given day was unknown, but the known factor, the reagent used to develop it could be changed at will. The following experiment was made.
The same sap was set to rise in several papers, each of which was then developed with a different strength of silver solution. Three examples of this kind of experiment are illustrated in the top rows of Plates 11, 12, 13 The mistletoe extract is 50% in each case, the strength of the silver reagent increases as marked above each picture. It is clear that different strengths of the silver solutions produce different pictures from the same mistletoe sap.
The pictures developed by the weaker silver solutions show:
- Short, narrow, slight forms;
- Only light or medium brown color
- Many pale areas, often a broad upper zone of Plant sap not covered by the solution.
The pictures developed by the stronger solutions shows:
- Long, broad and heavy forms
- Dark or very dark brown color
- Few pale areas, at most a few islands where the sap is not covered over by the silver solution.
This brief description of the effects of the weaker and stronger solutions of silver nitrate is enough to help the reader to distinguish the kind of differences it is important to see in the test pictures in order to follow the theme developed in the next pages. The experiment is explained in detail in Part II
The fact that different concentrations of silver nitrate in solution developed the sap to different pictures was of course to be expected, but the next step lead to an interesting discovery. Among the daily pictures developed with silver nitrate 1% tests were found that could not be arranged in the same order of appearance as the experimental series with increasing concentrations of silver. In other words, there were times when the mistletoe sap, although always developed with silver nitrate 1% formed pictures that could be classified according to stages of weak and strong effect as described above. Examples of such pictures are shown in the bottom rows of plates 11, 12, 13. It is obvious that the three pictures in each column of these illustrations are similar, although they were achieved differently. The pictures in the top rows of all three Plates 11, 12, 13 were produced by using different strengths of silver nitrate on the same mistletoe, whereas the two bottom rows were developed by using the same 1% strength silver nitrate, but on mistletoe picked at different times.
It can be said then, that it is the plant sap itself, that with silver nitrate 1% as reagent, produces sometimes less, sometimes more form in the picture, thus giving the impression that sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger silver solutions had been used. This makes it evident that plant saps have a quality that has that has the same effect as silver on the capillary dynamic picture. It is also evident that this influence varies and it has already been shown that it depends on the time the plants are picked. The test pictures often show variations in the mistletoe equivalent to between 0.5% and 2% of silver strength, sometimes within a few days.
A HYPOTHESIS
Where could an influence that works like silver does, and varies with time be sought ? The hypothesis was formulated, that this quality is connected with the moon.
Older civilizations and the alchemist in the Middle Ages connected silver with the moon. In our own day L. Kolisko has shown the connection by means of capillary dynamic experiments with solutions of silver salts, alone or mixed with other metalsalts in solution. This fact does not of course solve the problem of the plant tests, because the capacity of the saps to produce variously formed pictures with the same strength reagent has nothing to do with metallic silver. It is because the plant sap itself contains the power to shape the test that the degree of formative strength present at any time can also be read in tests made with other reagents.
Plate 30 shows this with a series of parallel tests made with goldchloride (AuCl3) and with silver nitrate(AgNO3). The similarity is close enough to enable tests developed with goldchloride to be used where necessary instead of the silver nitrate pictures that do not reproduce so well after they have darkened. The special connection between formative power and silver in contrast to other metals is discussed in Part II.
The next stage is to find out whether the quality in the plant that forms the test in the same way as silver does, has any connection with the Moon. If so it should vary with different lunar positions and rhythms, and the variations in the tests made from plants picked at these times should be classifiable in degrees of silver strength.
SUMMARY CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING FORM IN CAPILLARY DYNAMIC TEST.
Experiments with the same mistletoe sap developed with increasing concentrations of silver nitrate in solution as reagent, produced a series of pictures with increasing complexity of form. Similar series with increasing form content could be put together with pictures made from mistletoe picked at different times but all finished with the same strength of silver nitrate solution. It can be said that plant saps have a variable quality that has an effect in the capillary dynamic pictures comparable to that of silver. The hypothesis was formulated that this quality is connected with the Moon.