The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-07-20
Silver In the Sea,

The poet tells of the gems that shine
with "purest ray serene" in dark un-
fathomed caves of ocean hut it is not
in those inaccessible depths alone that
the treasure of the sea is hidden. There
is untold wealth diffused throughout
the immensity of its waters, as secure
from human avarice as il it were in the
abysses which plummet never sounded.
Its very diffusion puts it out of our
reach. The fat that it is everywhere
makes it practically nowhere. Some
years ago, certain French chemists de-
nonstrated that sea-water contains an
appreciable amount of silver. They de-
cided that, if it is equally distributed,
there must be at least two millions 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 diffused. The
water of the Pacific off the coast of Chill,
Is analyzed by an English chemist, gives
dhe same result as the Frenchman had
obtained from the waters of the British
channel
The silver in the sea is only one out
OF thousand illustrations of solid sub
stances made invisible by chemical pro-
cesses. And we must not suppose that
1T IS only minute quantities of matter
that can be thus lost to sight in trans
parent liquid. A silver half-dollar Ia
mythical piece of money to our young
readers, but the old folks can tell them
how large it is, or was can be dissolved
In very small amount of nitric acid,
which, if pure, is colorless liquid. Coin
soon vanishes, and the liquid is as clear
and transparent as ever. Many dollars
worth of silver might thus be concealed
Ill gallon of what would seem to be
nothing but water. Other metals, and,
indeed solid substances of all kinds, NAV
be dissolved and made to disappear in u
similar wey. There is no visible form of
matter which chemical agencies may
not render invisible. What we COM
monty call the destruction of matter is
merely this metamorphosis from the
seen to the unseen. When wood or any,
thing else is burned, it has simply un-
dergone chemical change which re-
moves 1t from our sight. Not particle
OK matter can be really destroyed, unless
by the Power that called it into exist
ence. The silver in our transparent
liquid is not annihilated if we pour it
into the sea; it is lost to us, but the sill
Yer is there, like the millions of tons of
kindred metal that were already min
gled with the waters. In like manner
the coal and wood we burn, except the
small residuum of ashes, have become
VieWless gases, and are blended with the
aerial ocean of the atmosphere. On the
ciearest day, the air above us is laden
with thousands of tons of carbon, in this
transparent condition. 1t is there
though we cannot see it, and plants are
continually turning it back into visible
form again. This is the key to the mys-
terry OF their growth, which is mainly
the withdrawing Of carbon from its gas
eous state Of carbonic acid, and making
1t part of their own structure.
We have said that the silver in the sea
is useless, because it is diffused through
SO vast bulk of fluid. But the fact
that it has been possible to detect it,
when thus diffused, shows that if chem
zeal agencies can make solid substances
vanish from our sight, they can, on the
other hand, compel a BODY thus con-
cealed 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 gallon of
eolorless liquid, may instantaneously
produce well-detined red, or blue or
yellow throughout the entire mass of
the latter; and yet, it may be less than
hundredth part Of o grain of some
solid substance in solution, that is made
to give such unmistakable evidence of
its presence.-BOStOn Journal Of Chemist
Ty.