174 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
No change in pH of sea water was found after stirring with oil, the average both before 
and after stirring being 7.6. 
As in the case of crude oil, bleed water from the Barre and Pelto wells of the 
Texas Co. was furnished through the courtesy of the Louisiana Department of 
Conservation. 
When received, the bleed water had a disagreeable oily odor, was slightly brown 
in color, had a pH of 7. 1-7.6, and a specific gravity of 1.1064 (17.5°C). A small 
amount of brown flocculent precipitate present in the bottom of the bottle was left 
undisturbed when taking a sample of brine for the experiments. 
The brine was mixed with distilled water, laboratory sea water, or both just 
before the beginning of an experiment. The percentage of dilutants was varied in 
order to keep the specific gravity of the test solution as near that of the laboratory 
sea water as possible and avoid confusing the results through change in density. 
PREPARATION OF WATER SOLUBLE FRACTION OF OIL 
The soluble fraction solution was made by placing 6 liters of crude oil and 3 
liters of laboratory supply sea water in a glass jar and stirring violently for 30 minutes. 
The mixture was allowed to stand overnight so that the two fluids would separate as 
completely as possible. However, only 2,500 to 2,900 cc of soluble fraction solution 
were recovered from the 3 liters of sea water added. This preparation was regarded 
as a stock solution from which all other dilutions were made. In the following dis- 
cussion and in the tables the undiluted solution is called 100 percent soluble fraction. 
The authors were not in a position to make a chemical analysis of the extracts they 
used, but due care was exercised in using exactly the same method of preparation. 
There is a possibility that because of the variation in temperature and salinity of 
water, the actual amount of substances extracted from the crude oil varied in dif- 
ferent samples. 
RESULTS OBTAINED WITH THE CONE METHOD 
Experiments using the cone method were begun in the early part of June 1934, 
and completed in the middle of September of that year. The percentages of soluble 
fraction used were 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 80, and 100. Since the Pelto wells were no 
longer producing when this work began, Barre crude oil was used. During the course 
of investigations, 62 experiments were performed with the cone method. The re- 
sults of these experiments are summarized and presented in table 11, which contains 
the essential information regarding the conditions under which the experiments were 
carried out. The hydrogen-ion concentration of the oil extract was slightly higher 
than that of the natural sea water. At Beaufort the pH of the water was 7.8. 
After dilution with distilled water to adjust the salinity, the pH of the sample was 
as low as 7.6. In Beaufort experiments the observed differences between the sea 
water and soluble fraction did not exceed 0.3 pH. In a test made at Woods Hole 
the pH value of the oil extract was 7.4 as compared with the pH 8.3 of the natural 
sea water. This extract was obtained by stirring oil and water for 24 hours and 
permitting them to separate in 3 days. Sea water, the pH of which was reduced 
by the addition of 0.1 N HC1 to 7.4, decreased the ciliary motion by 13.7 percent. 
The oil extract of the same pH completely inhibited the ciliary mechanism. 
