THE ENVIRONMENT 65 



science, — specific heat, coefficient of expan- 

 sion, solubility, heat of reaction, etc., — and 

 thereby we shall gain all the advantages of 

 the most exact sciences. No qualifications, 

 no doubtful or contentious matter, no imper- 

 fect descriptions need enter. 



In this manner it will be easy to estimate 

 the absolute biological fitness in certain re- 

 spects of water and carbonic acid, and at once 

 a host of automatic results of their proper- 

 ties will become evident. Many of these re- 

 sults, such as the nearly constant temperature 

 of the ocean, the ample rainfall, the freezing 

 of water upon the surface, the great variety of 

 carbon compounds, are familiar subjects of 

 speculation, though since Darwin little in- 

 terest has been manifested in them ; others, 

 only recently brought to light by the growth 

 of physical science, are nearly or quite un- 

 known in this connection. All deserve to 

 receive more serious attention from biologists 

 than is at present vouchsafed them, for they 

 constitute a part of the very foundation of 

 general biology, and they cause many of the 

 phenomena with which man is concerned in 

 his struggle for mastery of the environment. 



Yet the mere exposition of such facts and 

 relationships cannot suffice in a discussion of 

 the fitness of the environment. In the first 

 p 



