THE ARGUMENT 155 



cess known as hydrolytic cleavage, add to this 

 list of chemical characteristics which make 

 for fitness. 



These facts appear to indicate that in gen- 

 eral chemical behavior, in certain special 

 characteristics as well, and in the magnitude 

 of the quantity of energy rendered available 

 by their chemical changes, the elements car- 

 bon, hydrogen, and oxygen are uniquely and 

 most highly fitted to be the stuff of which life 

 is formed and of the environment in which it 

 exists. 



Mechanics has taken a place subordinate 

 to chemistry in the present work. Neverthe- 

 less, it has been noted that the unique proper- 

 ties of water are the cause of the admirable 

 mobility of that substance and of the whole 

 environment, and therefore of the dynamical 

 processes of geology, meteorology, etc., in- 

 cluding soil formation ; that it is surface ten- 

 sion which holds water in the soil ; that the 

 efficacv of water as a means of dissolving the 

 greatest variety of substances in the greatest 

 amounts, makes possible high osmotic pres- 

 sures, as w T ell as mobility of all the elements; 

 and there are a host of other considerations 

 which have been discussed above. In all 

 such cases the properties of water have been 

 found to be favorable influences for the wel- 



