Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-08-23
silver in the sea.


The poet tells Of the gems that shine
with ..purest ray serene = IN dark Untath-
omed caves of ocean but 1t is not in those
inaccessible depths alone that the treasure
of the sea Is hidden. There IS untold
wealth diffuesd throughout the immenSity
Of its waters. as secure from human
avarice as If It were in the abysses which
Iplummet never sounded. Its very dffu-
sion puts it out Of our reach. The fact
that it is everywhere makes 1t particaliy
nowhere. Some years go, certain French
chemists demonstrated that sea-water con-
/ tains an appreciable amount of silver.
/ They decided that. If It Is equally distrib-
/ buted. there must be at least two millions
i of tons Of the precious metal IN the whole
ocean, or more than has ever been dug
from the earth. And experiments made
At widely distant points. prove that the
metal is thus uniformly ditTused. The
water Of the Pacific off the coast Of Chilli,
as aualyzed bv an English chemist, gives
the same result as the Frencbman had OBJ
tanned from the waters of the British
Channel.
The silver Ia the sea Is Only one oat Of
a thousand Illustrations of solid substances
made invisible By chemical processes.
Au8 we must not suppose that 1t IS only
minute quantities of matter that can be
lhus lost II sight in transparent liquid.
\ silver hqlf-dol.ar a mythical piece of
money to our young readers, but the old
folks can tell them how large it Is, or wasl,
can be dissolved in . very small amount OF
nitric acid, which, il pure, j. colorless
! liquid. Coin soon vaalsaes. and the liquid
Is as clear and transparent as e-er. Many
dollars worth Of silver might thus be con-
ceaIed In a gallon Of what would seem to
be nothing but water Other metals, and.
indeed solid substances of all kinds, may
be dissolved and made to disappear in
similar way.
There Is no visible form Of matter which
chemical agencies may not render Invisible
/ What we commonly call the destruction Of
matter is merely this metamorphosis from
the seen to the unseen. When wood or
/ anything else Is burned, It has simply un-
/ dergone a chemical change which removes
/ it from our sight. Not part Gle of mat
ter can be really destroyed, unless by the
/ Power that called it into existence. The
silver in our transparent liquid Is not
auuihiiated if we pour it into the sea it
1 is lost 10 Us, but the silver Is there. ike
/ the millions of tons of kindred metal that
were already mingled with the waters. In
/ like manner, the coal and wood we burn.
! except the small residium of ashes, have
| become viewleSs gases, and are blended
with the aerial ocean of the atmosphere.
! On the clearest day, the air above US Is
/ laden VITA thousands of tons of carbon, in
this transparent condition. 1t IS there,
1 though we cannot see 1t, and plants are
continually turning it back into visible
/ form again. This is the key to the myS-
1 terry OF their growth, which Is mainly the
Withdrawing Of carbon from its gaseous
state OF carbonic acid, and making it
part OF their own structure.
/ We have said that the silver in the sea
/ is useless, because it Is diffused through so
vast a bulk OF fluid But the fact that 1t
has been possible to detect it, when thus
diffused, shows that II chemical agencies
can make solid substances vanish from our
sight. they can, on the other hand. compel
! body thus concealed to show itself. even
when it forms only the minutest proportion
of the mixture The delicacy Of chemical
| tests IS almost beyond belief. A single
drop of colorless liquid, added to 4 gallon
| of colorless liquid, may instantaneously
produce 4 well defined red, or blue, or
| yellow, throughout the entire mass Of the
latter; and yet, it may De less than a hun
dredth part of a grain of some solid sub
stance IN solution, that is made to give such
unmistaka5!e evidence of its presence.