Ill 



OF GAIN OR LOSS OF WATER 



247 



Distribution of water in a hen's egg 



The actual amount of water, compared with the dry solids in the 

 egg, has been determined as follows: 



10 



20 



30 40 

 Days 

 Fig. 76. Percentage of water in ripening maize. From Otto Glaser. 



We know very httle of the part which all this water plays: how 

 much is mere "reaction-medium," how much is fixed in hydrated 

 colloids, how much, in short, is bound or unbound. But we see that 

 somehow or other water is lost, and lost in considerable amount, 

 as the embryo draws towards completion and ceases for the time 

 being to grow. 



All vertebrate animals contain much the same amount of water 

 in their living bodies, say 85 per cent, or thereby, however unequally 



