August 2, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



131 



For Quinton the higher animals are com- 

 pound colonies of individual protoplasmic 

 cells, made up : first, of these cells, that is, 

 living matter or protoplasm, red blood 

 corpuscles, phagocytes, etc.; secondly, of 

 secreted dead matter such as coral, bone 

 matter, muscle fiber, etc. ; thirdly, of vari- 

 ous excretions, and secretions like milk; 

 fourthly, of the vital fluid, the blood serum, 

 free from all corpuscles or extraneous mat- 

 ter, the lymph, the plasm, or "physio- 

 logical salt solution" which fills the body 

 and bathes the protoplasm, and is the uni- 

 versal circulating fluid. 



Now Quinton states that this vital fluid, 

 which is but the water in which they live 

 in the lower sea animals, represents the 

 same thing in the osmotically closed higher 

 animals, and tends to represent the orig- 

 inal ocean or, as he formulates it (p. 417), 

 "Animal life, which appeared in the state 

 of a cell under definite physical and chem- 

 ical conditions tends to maintain through 

 the evolutionary series, in spite of cosmic 

 variations, these conditions of its origin." 



Quinton accordingly compares man to a 

 marine aquarium filled, however, not with 

 present-day sea water, but with that of the 

 early ocean. Again he compares him to the 

 culture tube of a bacteriologist— the tube 

 represented by the dead matter, the skin, 

 etc., the culture by the living cell matter, 

 while the vital medium represents the 

 nutrient fluid. These are striking and 

 stimulating comparisons. It is rather a 

 commonplace to say that society is an 

 organism. It is not so common to say the 

 converse: "An organism is a society." 



The great value of a scientific theory is 

 in its capacity to marshal and correlate 

 facts, and stimulate lines of investigation. 

 Judging Quinton 's hypothesis by this test, 

 I feel safe in classing it as a very valuable 

 addition to science. Quinton 's premise 

 that animal life had a marine origin will. 



I believe, be so readily accepted by geolo- 

 gists that I shall take it for granted and 

 not even sketch the elaborate arguments, 

 embryologic, phylogenetic, and others by 

 which he proves it. 



This granted, that there should be some 

 tendency among animals with a closed 

 body cavity like the land animals to re- 

 tain the ancestral composition of the vital 

 fluid seems reasonable. But Quinton goes 

 on to maintain that it is not a mere tend- 

 ency, but to a very great degree successful, 

 and that from the composition of the vital 

 fluid one may safely infer that the early 

 ocean had a temperature of about 44° G. 

 (111° F.) a concentration of about seven to 

 eight parts per thousand, and a composi- 

 tion mainly of sodium chloride. Now in 

 this we can not follow him without further 

 consideration, and we are going to ask:- 

 first, what actions are now going on which 

 may have changed the ocean from the 

 physical and chemical conditions of the 

 vital fluid to those that it now has, and, 

 secondly, what traces are there of the 

 burial of any such waters? For there are 

 alternatives to Quinton 's hypothesis which 

 he hardly seems to fully realize. 



That environment produces on the vital 

 fluid some effect is beyond question, and 

 is granted by Quinton, as it is shown by 

 his experiments. Now if by any particular 

 modification conditions more favorable to 

 cell life are produced, why should not this 

 modification be accumulated by the sur- 

 vival of the most vigorous, and so there be 

 a progress from the original oceanic fluid 

 to one determined, not by the original 

 ocean composition, but simply by physical 

 and chemical factors, which make it the 

 best for cell life? 



Again, why may not the sea animals have 

 remained open so long as the ocean was 

 growing more favorable in condition for 

 life, and only closed themselves in or struck 



