41 1) THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



nitric, and acetic acids into a vessel of water, 

 and to add to the fluid various substances, such 

 as iron, the alkalies, lime, magnesia, &c., a 

 number of chemical reactions would ensue, and 

 continue for a certain time ; but ultimately the 

 fluid would possess a certain definite composi- 

 tion, and several substances would lie at the 

 bottom of the vessel in an insoluble form. 

 What takes place in this vessel may be presumed 

 in some degree to illustrate what occurs in the 

 ocean at large ; it is impossible for several che- 

 mical compounds, each of which has an affinity 

 for the other, and a tendency to decompose and 

 unite with it, to exist in it at one time. The 

 result of the addition of such matters to it would 

 be, that they would react upon each other, pro- 

 duce some soluble and some insoluble compounds, 

 and the fluid part would be in that neutral con- 

 dition in which we find sea-water ; namely, as a 

 fluid holding dissolved several compounds which 

 have no disposition for mutual union. In the 

 language of science, the water of the sea is a fluid 

 holding " compatible " substances in solution. 



A small part only of the difficulty is thus 

 removable. It is plain, it may be urged, that 

 sea-water could not consist of a compound 

 medley of substances, since the laws of che- 

 mical affinity would produce the separation of 

 many in an insoluble form, and the combination 



