The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-01-14
ORIGIN Of Gulf Stream Life.

! Origin Of Gulf Stream Life.
In speaking some time ago of the
almost incredible PROPULSION of animal
! fe in the surface waters of the Gulf
Stream, the suggestion was made that
biological question of no small in
terest and Importance was forced upon
us by the facts there presented. The
question is this: Where shall we look
to find an origin for the bioplasm there
displayed? From the lowest to the
highest, from the infusoria to the fishes
and the cetaceans, they are preying
upon one another. We see how the
blackfish and the dolphin live. They
are but appropriating the flesh of
| fishes, s1uids, ETC., already existing as
perfectly formed animal food, and di-
| costing it for their own nutriment.
This is plain, and in accordance with
common experience, but as we GO op
down in the scale we must presently be
brought to pause.
Animal bioplasm, according to all
the recognized laws of modern physi-
ology, can not be produced from inor-
ganic materials. No one principle has
seemed to he more thoroughly estab-
iished than this-that it is the peculiar
| function of the vegetable kingdom to
absorb the proper inorganic mater ais,
say carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hy
drogen, and transform them by its
wonderful life giving power into or
ganic substances, into bioplasm first
and then into the various tissues re-
| duired. 1t has been held that the food,
properly speaking, of all forms of AMI
| NAL life must ha e hal these inorganic
materials transformed into organic sub
stances before ingesiion, otherwise
there was no possibi ity of its assimila-
ton; that carbon, oxygen, and hydro
gen were all of them foreign bodies to
use and when introduced into our sys-
tenn, perhaps mechanically with our
food, must rema n of no service to us,
and could never be by or powers Of
digestion transformed into hydro
carbon, Ike sugar, TO: instance, or
starch, or fat.
This has been, and is, the accepted
theory and belief, and vet if we adopt
it and follow it out to its legitimate
conclusions, we shall find the facts
which were previously stated as to the
teeming life Of the Gulf Stream exceed
ingly Oh fcult of explanation. The vast
proportion of that life must originate
IN the region where it lives and dies.
Some favored wanderers come in from
outside, for the cetaceans. the sharks,
the albicore. barracuda, dolphin, ETC.,
travel fast and far, but they are of
small Importance in the aggregate.
There must be of necessity very large
amount of new bioplasm in constant
and daily orig nation from inorganic
materials. The question is, Whence
does it come?
1t is the unanimous testimony of the
observers on the staff of the Fish Com
mission, from whom the facts as TO the
abundance of the surface life are de.
rived, that the water of the Gulf Stream
Is remarkably clear and transparent;
that the manifestations of vegetable
life in it are very small indeed. There
are masses of gulf weed floating here
and there, but not in any great quantity,
nor is there reason to believe that the
gulf weed is used for food, except very
slightly, by the animals around 1t.
Many of the hydroid polvps are at
tached 30 it, and drift with it, but they
use it only as a moving hoHse,a boat or
raft, SO TO speak, while they Industrious
ly collect their food from the water
around them. Some of the small fishes,
especially the curious, grotesque look
ing Oh rome ties, make the same Sc of
the gulf weed tangles as do the polyps,
but they never touch it as food. 1t is
quite sure that the Sargassum furnishes
small amount of mater al for new bio
plasm. Nor does there seem evidence
that any of the alge are sufficiently
abundant to afford any relief from the
perplexity. Even the minute. micro
scopic diatomace q which swarm so in
finitely in many parts of our shallow
waters are apparently in small num-
bers in the Gulf Stream, and we have,
therefore, no profusion of vegetable
life which in the slightest degree cor
responds to that of an NAL life.
The only explanation that seems
available is this-tbat some. or perhaps
all, OF the lower forms of animal life,
have really the power which has hith-
erto been reckoned the peculiar prerog-
alive of vegetable organisms, that of
Transforming inorganic matt r into or
ganic. III we assume this. the mystery
of the swarming myriads il at once re-
moved. Nor is the assumption one that
need starue us, for we well understand
that along tie border line, on either
hand, the functions VIII ch are shown
in the higher grades to be clearly ami
NAL or vegetable are so slightly special
lied or ditTerentia ed as to have much
less significance than in the more CON-
plicated types.