§ GIO, GU. THE BASIN AND BED OF THE ATLANTIC. 827 



aiiti-biotics, to be riclier than that of shallow water with infusorial 

 remains ; mud and all the light sedimentary matter of river waters 

 are deposited in the deep pools, and not in the shoals and rapids 

 of our fresh-water streams; so we ought, reasoned they of this 

 school, to have the most abundant deposits at the bottom of the 

 deep sea. 



610. The anti-biotics referred to the antiseptic preperties of 

 On the antiseptic sca watcr, and told how it is customary with mari- 



properties of sea wa- . -ii n t -t i 



ten ners, especially with the masters or the sailing pack- 



ets between Europe and America, to "corn" fresh meat by sink- 

 ing it to great depths overboard. If they sink it too deep, or let 

 it stay down too long, it becomes too salt. According to them, 

 this process is so quick and thorough, because of the pressure and 

 the affinity which not only forces the water among the fibres of 

 the meat, but which also induces the salt to leave the water and 

 take to the meat ; and that the fleshy part of these microscopic 

 organisms have been exposed to powerful antiseptic agents is 

 proved- by the fact that they are brought up in the middle of the 

 ocean, and remain on board the vessel exposed to the air for 

 months before thej^ reach the hands of the microscopist ; some of 

 them have remained so exposed for more than a year, and then 

 been found full of fleshy matter : a sure proof that it had been pre- 

 served from putrefaction and decay by processes which it had un- 

 dergone in the sea, and before it was raised into the air. 



611. Thus the anti-biotics held that these little creatures were 

 On pressure, prcscrvcd for a while after death, and until they 



reached a certain depth, by salt, and afterward by pressure. They 

 held that certain conditions are requisite in order that the decay 

 of organic matter may take place ; that the animal tissues of these 

 shells during the process of decay are for the most part converted 

 into gases ; that these gases, in separating from the animal com- 

 pound, are capable of exerting only a certain mechanical force, 

 and no more ; that this force is not very great; and, unless it were 

 sufficient to overcome the pressure of deep-sea water, their sepa- 

 ration could not go on, and that, consequently, there is a certain 

 depth in the sea beyond which animal decomposition or vegetable 

 decay can not take place. In support of this view, they referred 

 to the well-known effects of pressure in arresting or modifying 

 the energies displayed by certain chemical affinities ; and in proof 



