35 



The other melting point is between 30° and 40°C, at which tem- 

 perature, under influence of the intense heat agitation, the crystal 

 structure fades out altogether (Feates and Ives). It is possible^ 

 that nature stabilized temperature in higher isothermal organisms 

 around 37°C to allow their cells to build crystalline water struc-j 

 tures of their own choosing. 



The situation becomes more complex still if we consider water 

 structures built around solid surfaces. The tendency of building 

 structure-ordered layers around surfaces reaching deep into the 

 fluid phase seems to be a general tendency of liquids. This prob- 

 lem is also of first-rate industrial importance with regard to lubri- 

 cation. Henniker and McBain collected, as early as 1947, 175 

 references to such layers and have come to the conclusion that 

 "deep-surface orientation is the normal behavior of many liquids. 

 The surface zones of liquids are tens and hundreds of molecules 

 deep, rather than monomolecular, as commonly assumed." A clear 

 demonstration of such surface layers of water was given more re- 

 cently by Palmer, Cunliffe, and Hugh who measured the dielectric 

 properties of water between mica plates and found that water 

 behaved around the mica not as water but as "liquid ice" showing 

 the frequency dependence of the dielectric constant of ice. These 

 layers of ice were found to be several microns deep. 



The formation of such water structures should not be confused 

 with the old idea of "bound water." "Binding" involves rather 

 the idea of energy than that of structure. "Binding" means a cer- 

 tain force, energy being needed to remove a molecule from its site. 

 Such "bound" molecules, having their dipole forces engaged, are 

 also unfit to serve as solvents for other molecules. Such a binding 

 is especially strong around free charges, as those of ions. The 

 order thus produced is a "short range order" the number of more 

 firmly held layers of molecules being very small, 1-2. Contrary 

 to this the building of lattices means "long range order" in which 

 the single molecules collaborate collectively. 



The building of such water structures is not necessarily linked 



