The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-13
Poisoning Sea-Flsh With Salt.

That a marine creature can be pois-
oned with salt water seems a manifest
absurdity; yet we are assured, on the
strength of very recent experiments,
chat pure salt acts as violent poison
to fish, and that it is only the other
constituents of their native element
that prevent it's so acting in sea-water.
Says the Revue Generate des Sciences,
in an account of the experiments just
mentioned:
The innumerable animals that live
in the sea are in permanent contact
with strong salt water containing not
exclusively, but chiefly, Chord of So
dunn; many OF them die in a few min
utes when they are put into fresh wa
ter. Man adds to his food large pro-
portions of this same salt. and is in
, commoded If deprived of it. Sea salt
thus seems TO be of use to many living
organisms and Indispensable to some.
! VI. Jacques Loeb announces very inter
esting experiments that prove that this
Chord of sodium, when purified and
freed from the other salts that accom-
pany 1t in the sea, is a violent poison
/ for sea creatures. Perhaps 1t might
also be poisonous to man If he did not
take into his system also with his food
and drink a certain quantity of potash
and lime salts, which are its antidotes.
Loeb takes small marine fish, newly
caught, of the genus Fundulus, and
puts them into a solution of pure So
dunn Chord. containing the same pro-
portion of this salt as sea water; at
the end Of twelve hours all the fish are
dead. If this salt solution be diluted
with distilled water. the fish live long
er, the length of the time being in ratio
to the extent of the dilution. They
i've indefinitely if they are put into sea
water even II per cent of pure chlorid
of sodium be added to 1t. The chlorid
Of sodium must, then, act as a poison
but sea water must contain antidotes
TO it,"
The experimenter. in searching fol-
these antidotes. found that the chlorids
of magnesium, potassium, and calcium
even In small proportions. diminished
the poisonous action of the salt. ant
that in certain proportions the two lat
ter rendered the solution able to sus.
tain life as if 1t were natural sea water
r The same results were obtained will
many other marine creatures. 4TC
quote again:
Here are interesting facts who's,
Z theoretical Importance Is considerable
3 They show us very strikingly the par
played by the mineral composition o
D.. the surrounding medium in vital phe
n nomena; they reveal the unexpecte,
z fact that pure sodium Chord is
poison as are the Chords of potassium
and calcium, while the mixture of thes
three bodies in the proper proportion
is, on the contrary. favorable to tn
preservation and development of Ger
tain living creatures.
Loeb believes that the metallic ion
= OF these salts from combinations wit
- the proteid substances of the protop
:, lasm; that these combinations al
10 quite easily dissociable. so that in tn
&c presence of pure salt, such as sodiur
! Chord, the sodium ion takes the plac.
In the protoplasm, of the potassium
le calcium. and magnesium ions, givin
r compounds that are not capable of sus
in tanning the life of the organism. Thes,
ie OF course. are but hypothesis; Mr.. Loe
promises to establish their CORRECTNESS
bv series of experiments. His stud
Of the toxicity Of sodium Chord Ia tn
q first of this promised series."-Transia
A ton made for The Literary Digest.