66 



destroys them, or are they self limited in some oth r mysterious 

 way? In like manner, while the degree of alkalinity of the sea like 

 that of our own blOod-S'^rum is constant within narrow limits and any 

 wide variation msans death, the great drafts of carbon that plants 

 make in their photosynthetic activities, added to various other 

 biologic and chemical happeninQS are as constantly tending to alter 

 the ionic concentration of the various electrolytes in the solution, 

 and thereby to raise or lower the alkalinity. But while alterations 

 so caused may actually progress to the fatal limit in .^nclos^d pools 

 this never happens in the open sea, 7'hat role in maintaining this 

 fundamental balance, against their own tend-:ncy to upset it, is 

 played by living creatures, and how do they affect the cognate matter 

 of the COg tension of the sea water relativr to that of the air? 



As an eminent physiologist has asked, what underlying geophysi- 

 cal changes allow the ^"-ive and take of this vast cycle of matt, r to 

 be continuous; a continuity upon which depends the continuity of 

 life in the sea? Are the events involved similar to those observed 

 in the soil on land, or are they sui-g^neris ? 



This, then, is the real goal of th:- marine biologist - to under- 

 stand the cycle of riiatter and of energy in tne ocean. But he is 

 helpless without the assistance of the chemist, of the physicist, of 

 the bacteriolos'ist , of the geologist. 



