62 



CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



The decrease in carbon dioxide is slightly greater than required by 

 the decrease in calcium, as shown by analysis . This is due, probably, 

 to drainage water carrying calcium salts other than bicarbonate. 



The most interesting feature brought 

 out by this year's analysis is the rapidly 

 increasing rate at which potassium is 

 disappearing. It became apparent in 

 1912 that the ratio of potassium to 

 sodium and to total solids was decreas- 

 ing rapidly, the number of parts per 

 100,000 in 1912 having remained the 

 same as in 1911. The analysis this 

 year shows less potassium than in 1912, 



although sodium has increased 19.3 per cent. The ratios of potas- 

 sium to sodium and to total solids during the seven years that the 

 Salton water has been analyzed is traced in the table herewith. 

 The Behavior of Micro-organisms in Brines, by G. J. Peirce. 



A careful working out by graphs of the distribution of rains and 

 of the one-celled alga^ in the brines of the salt-works on the shores of 

 the Bay of San Francisco shows that the behavior of the algse follows 

 very closely the cycle of the seasons. 



Another very significant and suggestive result of this study is the 

 fact that common or table salt is not naturally sterile. Under cer- 

 tain conditions, since it carries its antidote or opposite with it, it 

 may induce such decompositions or other changes in the materials 

 which it is intended and supposed to preserve that they become 

 dangerous as well as undesirable as food. Further studies in this 

 direction should lead to important results, owing to the very general 

 use of salted meats and salted fish as articles of food, and to the 

 belief that certain maladies are connected with the protracted or 

 too exclusive use of salted foods. 



Action of Salton Sea Water on Vegetable Tissues, bij M. A. Brannon. 



The results of Dr. Brannon's studies are given in full in the report 

 of this Department for 1912. While no new facts have been added, 

 the continuance of the hydrolysis effects described by him have been 

 noted and the deposition of calcium observed in his experiments has 

 yielded some new conclusions in connection with the work of Messrs. 

 Free and Jones (see ante). 



Analysis of the Flora of the Salton Sink, by S. B. Parish. 



Of the 156 species of plants found below the high-beach line, 12 

 are sporophytes and 144 are spermatophytes. The sporophytes are 

 represented by 4 families and 11 genera; the spermatophytes are 

 represented by 37 families (16 of them having but a single species 

 each) and 100 genera (75 of which have but a single species each). 



