THE LIFELESS WATER 



37 



rarer in the primordial seas than at the present time. Yet 

 from the first the air in sea-water was much richer in oxygen 

 than the atmosphere.^ 



As compared with primordial sea- water, which was relatively 

 fresh and free from salts and from nitrogen, existing sea-water 

 is an ideal chemical medium for life. As a proof of the special 

 adaptability of existing sea-water to present biochemical con- 

 ditions, a very interesting comparison is that between the 

 chemical composition of the chief body fluid of the highest 

 animals, namely, the blood serum, and the chemical composi- 

 tion of sea-water, as given b}^ Henderson. - 



Chemical Composition of Present Sea-Water and of Blood Serum 



Primordial Chemical Environment 



Since the primal sea was devoid of those earth-borne nitro- 

 gen compounds which are indirectly derived first from the 

 atmosphere and then from the earth through the agency of the 

 nitrifying bacteria, those who hold to the hypothesis of the 

 marine origin of protoplasm fail to account for the necessary 

 proportion of nitrogenous matter there to begin with. 



1 Pirsson, Louis V., and Schuchert, Charles, 1915, p. 84. 

 -Henderson, Lawrence J., 1913, p. 187. 



