Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 237 



reasons ; mainly, however, from the fact, that organic impurities 

 when diffused through a vast body of moving water, whether fresh 

 or salt, become altogether, and very rapidly lost; so much so, indeed, 

 as apparently to have called forth a sjiecial agency to arrest the 

 total annihilation of organized matter in its final oscillation between 

 the organic and inorganic worlds. The author alluded to the count- 

 less hosts of microscopic creatures which swarm in most waters, 

 and whose principal function has been ably surmised by the great 

 anatomist, Professor Owen, to be that of feeding upon, and thus 

 restoring to the living chain, the almost unorganized matter diffused 

 through their various zones of habitation. These creatures preying 

 upon one another, and being preyed upon by others in their turn, 

 the circulation of organic matter is kept up, and carried through its 

 appointed rounds. If we do not adopt this view, we must at least 

 look upon the Infusoria, the Foraminifera, and many of the higher 

 types, as scavenger agents appointed to prevent an undue accumu- 

 lation of decaying matter ; and thus, as before, the salt condition of 

 the sea does not become a necessity. It was shown also, that, under 

 many circumstances, the amount of saline matter in the sea is not 

 sufficient to arrest decomposition. Other suggestions, to the effect 

 that the sea is salt in order to render it of greater density, and by 

 lowering its freezing-point to preserve it from congelation to within 

 a shorter distance of the poles, were then discussed in their more 

 prominent relations. The value of these suggestions in a secondary 

 point of view was fully admitted, but shown, at the same time, to 

 be scarcely adequate to meet the entire solution of so vast and grand 

 a problem as that which is manifestly involved in the salt condition 

 of the sea. The freezing-point of sea water, for instance, is only 

 3^° F. lower than that of fresh water ; and hence with the present 

 distribution of land and sea,— and still less, probably, with that 

 which obtained in former geological epochs — no very important 

 effects would have resulted had the ocean been fresh instead of 

 salt. So far as regards the habitable portions of the world, the 

 present difference would be next to nothing. Professor Chapman 

 here submitted to the Institute a suggestion which he believed to 

 be original, in reference to the question under discussion. He con- 

 sidered the salt condition of the sea as mainly intended to regulate 

 evaporation, and to prevent an undue excess of that phsenomenon 

 under the influence of any disturbing causes that might from time 

 to time arise. It is well known that under the same atmospheric 

 pressure different liquids have very different boiling-points ; and in 

 like manner, saturated solutions evaporate more slowly than weak 

 ones, and these latter more slowly again than pure water. In sea 

 water we have on an average about 3^ per cent, of solid matter, of 

 which about 2 - G consists of chloride of sodium or common salt. 

 The results of certain experiments by the author in reference to 

 evaporation on weighed quantities of ordinary rain-water, and water 

 holding in solution 2*6 per cent, of salt, were then given. The exces9 

 of loss of the rain-water over the water of the salt solution was, for 

 the first twenty-four hours, 054 per cent. ; at the close of forty- 

 eight hours, 1*04 per cent.; after seventy-two hours, T4G per cent., 



