188 THE FITNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT 



The gaps in the table do not indicate that 

 substances are lacking, but merely that the 

 amounts are small. In short, the same sub- 

 stances are present in both cases, and in both 

 cases sodium chloride largely predominates. 

 The importance of carbonic acid in metabo- 

 lism accounts for the large amount of sodium 

 bicarbonate in the blood, and this raises the 

 amounts of both sodium and carbonic acid. 



It is also to be noted that the regulatory 

 processes in the ocean and in the organism 

 are in one or two aspects similar, e.g. tempera- 

 ture regulation by evaporation, and regula- 

 tion of the alkalinity. Of course no impor- 

 tance attaches to such resemblances, beyond 

 the fact that both regulations are highly 

 favorable, because of the special fitness of 

 water in one case and of carbonic acid in the 

 other. But it is at least worthy of mention 

 that the regulation of the ocean in general 

 bears a striking resemblance to a physiolog- 

 ical regulatory process, although such physi- 

 ological processes are supposed to be the 

 result of organic evolution alone. Very much 

 this same idea occurred to Palitzsch in the 

 course of his investigation of the alkalinity 

 of the ocean. 1 The resemblance is more ob- 

 vious still when the stability of all the more 



1 See note above, p. 153. 



