•620 Prof. Macallum. Inorganic Composition of the [June 23, 



although both they and their ancestral forms have been marine and con- 

 temporary almost throughout all the periods of geological history. In the 

 king crab the renal organs do not influence the concentration of the salts of 

 the blood, which amount to 2'982 per cent., and they appear to influence only 

 •extremely slightly the amount of the magnesium, and more considerably the 

 sulphuric acid (SO3). Even in the lobster, in which the saline concentration 

 of the blood is 2-852 per cent., the renal organs are very active only in the 

 elimination of these two elements. 



It is thus a far cry from the renal organ of Limulus and the lobster to the 

 kidney of the Elasmobranch and still more so to the kidney of Teleosts and 

 higher Vertebrates. The salts of the plasma of the cod are less than half 

 those of the blood of the lobster, yet both Gadidce and Homaridce have been 

 marine since the Cretaceous. 



In mammals, according to Abderhalden's analyses, there is an extraordinary 

 similarity in the inorganic composition of the serum of the number of the 

 forms taken, and the ratios of the sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium 

 are, as shown in Table (IV), B, almost parallel with those in the Teleosts and 

 Elasmobranch s. 



It may be of interest here to refer to the inorganic composition of the 

 blood in mammalia which lead a marine life. Of these, the Cetacea have 

 been marine since their origin in the early Eocene. So far no opportunity 

 has occurred of analysing the serum of any of these forms, but through the 

 kindness of Mr. G. W. Taylor, Director of the Canadian Marine Biological 

 Station at Nanaimo, British Columbia, tlie author obtained a quantity of 

 clotted and partially laked blood of the whale common in tlie Pacific off the 

 coast of British Columbia. This was analysed and found to be very rich in 

 potassium, as is tlie blood of tlie horse and pig, much the greater part of the 

 element being held in the red corpuscles. The analyses gave the following 

 values in per cent. : — 





Na. 



K. 



Ca. 



Mg. 



CI. 



1 



0-1808 



0 



•19962 



0 -00693 



0-00444 , 



0 -26758 



2 



0 -1802 



0 



■20] 18 



0 -006005 



0 -00453 



0 -2695 



If \vc Liik(! the mean of tlio two detcrniiiiations of each element and range 

 tlniiii with the values for the; blood (corpuscles and plasma) of the horse and 

 pig, as calculated fi-oiii Liu; dcleriiiiiiaiionH made by Abderhaldcii, the 

 pariillcliHiii is remarkable : . / 



