In 1923 it was suggested to L. Kolisko that she should study the formative or etheric forces in plants. She should observe how a drop of the sap of various plants spreads in filter paper at different times. (Bibl.8)
The use of filter paper was not new. Pliny described how the adulterations of verdigris could be detected with the help of impregnated paper, and Leonardo da Vinci studied capillary attraction.
The well known German chemist Runge (1795 - 1867) noticed that different liquids have different rates of absorption in filter paper. He found that some solutions react to each other in suitable paper producing color patterns, and made the first capillary pictures. In 1850 he published "Musterbilder", in 1855 "Bildungstrieb der Stoffe". These were collections of capillary pictures made by letting drops of various chemical solutions react on each other in filter paper. For example, first manganese sulphate and copper sulphate, then afterwards a mixture of potassium ferrocynide, potassium chromate and potassium hydroxide. He even had a number of pictures made by school children according to his directions. He referred to the results as his "professorial blots" or his "chemical coat of arms".
It is impossible to say what Runge understood by his expression "formative urge in matter" (Bildungstrieb der Stoffe). We only know what practical use he himself saw for his "sample pictures in color chemistry". They could be appreciated for their beauty, used by artists, draftsmen, decorators, and printers. He saw in these pictures a secret for the manufacture of unforgeable paper for state documents. Today Runge is recognized as the forerunner or circular paper chromatography.
Schonbein (1799-1868) used filter paper to work out the method of paper analysis to partially separate substances in solution. He found that not all solutions reach the same height when set to rise in filter paper. Goppelsroder (1836 - 1919) found connections between the height to which a solution rises in paper and its chemical composition. Both Schonben and Goppelsroder did valuable work towards the development of paper chromatography.
It is thus clear that during Rudolf Steiner's lifetime the methods of capillary analysis and the fundamentals of paper chromatography were already in use. Both methods are designed to separate substances in solution, so that a quantitative analysis can be made. It can scarcely be assumed that Kolisko did not know of these methods. Whether or not, it is clear that she saw how filter paper could be used for a completely new purpose. The otherwise invisible formative forces for example in plant saps , could be exposed in filter paper. The method would enable the formative trends in different saps to be observed and their meaning gradually understood. The new method aimed at examining the quality of the sap as a whole, in contrast to methods of analysis already in use.
A drop of plant sap on filter paper shows very little, so L. Kolisko then proceeded to absorption by capillary attraction, but there was still little form to observe. It was only when she used a reagent in the form of a metalsalt solution that structure appeared. (Bibl 15, 16) The method was worked out and named capillary dynamolysis. It can be used to observe the formative trends in all soluble substances. L. Kolisko has worked with the method for forty years and observed and confirmed the connection between the seven chief metals and the planets. A list of her publications in this field is given in the bibliography.
It can be said that capillary dynamolysis, developed from suggestions given by Rudolf Steiner, uses filter paper with completely different aims from the methods then in use. L. Kolisko's work and that to be described here, lead to results in a new field. Here substances are examined not with regard to their material content, but from the aspect of the formative forces active in them.
In order to give the capillary dynamic method of examining plant saps its scientific value for the future, it must be carried out with the utmost exactitude. In the course of time many variations in procedure have come into use. The value of these can only be determined by studying the purpose of each step in the process. A good deal in connection with the plant itself had to be examined in order to find the conditions under which comparable tests can be made. The next step was to build up an objective method of assessment. This could only be done on an experimental basis if it were to be generally useful. This first step made to comprehend the language of the formative forces in the filter paper pictures will be described. Anyone who takes the trouble should be able to understand and apply it. Although worked out with mistletoe sap, this method of assessment can be applied to capillary dynamic test of all plant saps.
This work begins to cover new ground and so cannot be fitted into any branch of present day science. It lies outside the field of "normal science" - it is at present and "extra-ordinary science" - to use the terms chosen by Thomas Kuhn in "The Structure of Scientific revolution" (University of Chicago Press, 1962). It challenges present ways of thinking, and founded by an outsider has little chance of being accepted by "normal scientist" today. American meteorologists found connections between rainfall and the phases of the Moon. It is significant that they withheld publication for some time, realizing that these findings were too opposed to the general view to be acceptable at once.
This work is written therefore for the unprejudiced reader, layman or scientist. Part 1 describes the method sufficiently to forestall the many questions that would arise, and to give a basis for results that would otherwise appear wholly imaginary. It will eventually form part of an extended work showing further aspects of the activities of the formative forces in the sap of plants.
Part II is in the form of a handbook for those interested in repeating the experiments. It deals with technical questions and describes the basic experiments in full. It should help to arouse interest in the possibilities of the method and to standardize the procedure of examining plant saps, so that gradually an increasing number of comparable tests can be made and assesses on a common basis. Teachers may find the practical suggestions useful.
The unsuspected conditions or activities in plants found by means of capillary dynamolysis cannot be connected with any branch of natural science, botany, plant morphology, or biochemistry. Modern astronomy for instance could give no explanation at all of how the Moon could possibly influence plants. The experimental results remain isolated and enigmatical until they are considered in connection with descriptions of inner aspects of plant life given by Rudolf Steiner. Part III shows how some of the findings appear to correspond to these descriptions of how, and through which earthly substances supersensible forces can work in the physical plant. The apparently isolated findings begin thus to fall into place against a vast background.