Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/803/en

If the dynamics of clay are essentially determined by its affinity to water and the salts dissolved in it, then it is air and warmth that co-bring about the rhythmic swinging back and forth between form (solid crust) and processual substance-exchange. This rhythm manifests especially in the dynamics of the hydration sheaths of the clay particles. In dryness (summer) they contract and draw near in their density to the earthy-solid. In wetness (winter) the water sheaths expand their volume. Thus clay is the bearer of the rhythmic interplay of the solid, the liquid, the gaseous and warmth — and thereby the representative of the member of the middle, the "diaphragm," between the metabolic pole above and the head pole below the earth (see Figure 5, p. 90).