WATER 91 



conditions might be otherwise in beings of a 

 very different kind, but to-day every chemist 

 well knows that if he is to control a chemical 

 process, almost the first desideratum is rigid 

 regulation of the temperature at which the 

 process takes place. 1 



It is therefore incontestable that the un- 

 usually high specific heat of water tends 

 automatically and in most marked degree to 

 regulate the temperature of the whole envi- 

 ronment, of both air and water, land and sea, 

 and that of the living organism itself. Like- 

 wise the same property favors the circulation 

 of water by facilitating the production of 

 winds, besides contributing to the formation 

 of ocean currents. Here is a striking instance 

 of natural fitness, which in like degree is un- 

 attainable with any other substance except 

 ammonia. 



to produce alterations in many of the complex substances 

 that are involved in the phenomena of immunity and other 

 similar things. 



1 Almost the most conspicuous change in the equipment 

 of modern chemical laboratories, as a result of the growth of 

 physical chemistry, is the introduction everywhere of thermo- 

 stats. 



