5 88 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



substances, or both, are present to unite with the nascent 

 carbohydrates, under the action of the silent discharge, in 

 a manner precisely equivalent to the recent synthesis of an 

 amino acid by Giamician, from acetone and prussic acid, under 

 the action of sunlight. 



Whether the synthesis of amino acids in volcanic eruptions 

 may ever be experimentally established, seemsfor obvious reasons 

 extremely doubtful. Putter 1 has shown that the waters of the 

 Mediterranean, at some miles distant from the shore, contain 

 organic substances, including amino acids, in small though 

 measurable quantity, which led him to the conception of the 

 sea as an immense (though very dilute) organic solution. 

 Putter conceives that these organic substances are due to the 

 functional activities of the lowest marine organisms, the algae 

 and their like ; but it may be noted that the organic products of 

 vital activity are in general poisonous (ptomaines, etc.), and that 

 in at least one known instance, the bottom of the Black Sea, 

 decomposition products have in the absence of destructive 

 bacterial activity made this " the world's most perfect desert." 2 



On the other hand, we know of organic products of inorganic 

 origin (hydrocarbons), as some petroleums, and probably asphalt 

 and the like. 3 In the light of our new knowledge of volcanic 

 chemism, there seems no good reason to deny the possibility of 

 inorganic carbohydrates, and even nitrogenous compounds, as 

 amino acids, etc. ; and if for example it could be shown that the 

 sea-waters in the vicinity of volcanoes contain a much higher 

 percentage of organic substances than the sea generally, this 

 view would receive considerable support. 



Again, it is known that the Mediterranean, especially in the 

 vicinity of Naples, is rich in marine forms, which led to the 

 establishment there of the first marine biological laboratory. 

 It is now known that the quantity of life in the sea is a function 

 of temperature, 4 and varies inversely with the temperature, 

 contrary to popular ideas. If it could be shown that waters 

 in the neighbourhood of active volcanoes are much richer in 



1 Stoffhaushalt, d. Meeres ; Zeit. f. allg. Physiol. 7, 366, 1907. Putter's work 

 has, however, been recently repeated, and his results and conclusions flatly 

 controverted by Henze : Archiv.f. ges. Physiol. (Prlueger), 123, 478, 1908. 



3 Daly, loc cit. 



3 Clarke, Geochemistry, 631, for lit. 



4 Putter, loc. cit.'p. 338 ; Johnstone, Life in the Sea, p. 241, 1908. 



