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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 657 



rine. Now compare these with the 35 

 parts per thousand, of which 20 are chlo- 

 rine, of the present ocean. Consider that 

 in each case this is the saltest water from 

 the district and horizon. Do they not indi- 

 cate for the open paleozoic ocean a concen- 

 tration much less than at present, and not 

 far from that of the vital fluid of the land 

 animals, at the very time the first land 

 animals are known to have appeared? The 

 large collection of water analyses made by 

 Blatchley for Indiana yields exceptionally 

 good material for study, since there are a 

 large number from drilled wells, in many 

 eases separated from the surface by sheets 

 of oil or gas. "We have to eliminate only 

 two or three whose extra strength appears 

 to be due to brines of the Salina formation, 

 or to solution of sulphides as sulphates on 

 the one hand, and more numerous shallow 

 wells, where the water is dilute, and car- 

 bonates, not chlorides, dominant on the 

 other, to get a well-defined and extra abun- 

 dant group of analyses, characterized by a 

 chlorine excess, and a concentration of 500 

 to 1,100 grains per gallon, i. e., 7 to 16 

 parts per thousand, all drawing their 

 strength deep down in Paleozoic rocks. 



Norton's collection* gives us a chance to 

 study Iowa in similar fashion. Here there 

 seems to have been much circulation from 

 the high western plains toward the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. Yet, if the rocks had been 

 laid down in water as salt as the present 

 ocean to any great extent, it seems to me 

 hardly likely that that which contains the 

 most chlorine of all those Norton gives 

 would have but 3.356 parts per thousand, 

 of which 1.1 only are chlorine, while there 

 is a large excess of sodium, showing, to be 

 sure, considerable dilution. This water is 

 from 716 to 845 feet down in the Carbon- 

 iferous. 



This is a work in which it is easy to 



*Vol. VI., Iowa reports. 



deceive one's self, and many should share 

 in these critical studies. 



3. We come now to the third point made 

 by Quinton, the resemblance of the vital 

 medium to the ocean in composition. 



Sodium chloride is the leading salt in 

 both. This is the more noteworthy because 

 in the living cell potassium and phosphates 

 are much more important, and this is also 

 true in most of the animal foods. 



That is the reason why the craving for 

 salt is so natural, and the salt tax the one 

 tax that the poorest mortal can not evade, 

 if he would live. It is the last screw to be 

 placed on abject poverty. 



A second group of constituents in abun- 

 dance is formed by magnesium, calcium, 

 potassium and sulphur. Carbon, oxygen, 

 nitrogen, hydrogen (carbon dioxide and 

 ammonia), silica and fluorine are also well 

 known to be present in both. Finally, by 

 an elaborate discussion of physiological lit- 

 terature Quinton shows that all the rarer 

 elements of sea water, with the exception of 

 cobalt, also circulate in our veins, to wit, 

 I, Br, Mn, Cu, Pb, Pt, Zn, Ag, As, B, Ba, 

 Al, Sr, R, Cs, Au, Li. 



I do not consider the identity in the pres- 

 ence of traces of relatively rare elements of 

 any very great importance in the present 

 state of analysis. These elements are all 

 widely distributed in nature, even if in 

 minute quantities, and are liable to occur 

 in ocean or vital medium without there be- 

 ing any genetic connection. Moreover, the 

 knowledge of their presence in the one case 

 or the other depends in a number of cases 

 on only one or two determinations, so that 

 there is no assurance of their universal and 

 constant presence. 



When we consider the ratio of the dif- 

 ferent substances, which is what Quinton 

 means by the composition, we iind a num- 

 ber of difficulties as well as some striking 

 resemblances between the vital fluid and 



