At a recent meeting of the London Chemical Society, Mr. W. Jago read
a paper "On the Organic Matter in Sea-water." On p. 133 of the "Sixth
Report of the Rivers Commission," it is stated that the proportion
of organic elements in sea-water varies between such wide limits in
different samples as to suggest that much of the organic matter consists
of living organisms, so minute and gelatinous as to pass readily through
the best filters. At the suggestion of Dr. Frankland, the author has
investigated this subject. The water was collected in mid-channel
between Newhaven and Dieppe by the engineers of the London, Brighton,
and South Coast Railway in stoppered glass carboys. The author has used
the combustion method, the albuminoid ammonia, and in some cases the
oxygen process of Prof. Tidy. To determine how the various methods of
water-analysis were effected by a change of the organic matter from
organic compounds in solution to organisms in suspension, some
experiments were made with hay-infusion. The results confirm those of
Kingzett (_Chem. Soc. Journ_., 1880, 15). the oxygen required first
rising and then diminishing. The author concludes that the organic
matter of sea-water is much more capable of resisting oxidizing agents
than that present in ordinary fresh waters, and that the organic matter
in sea-water is probably organized and alive.
* * * * *