Osmotic Problems of Vertebrates

Abstract

Water provides the principal physical framework in which the energy transformations characteristic of life take place; it is the solvent for life as we know it. Chemical reactions take place in a variety of media, but the physico-chemical properties of water make it uniquely suitable for such a role. Its mobility and plasticity provide it with structural advantages suitable to living systems, its high heat capacity and latent heat of evaporation buffer the organism against thermal changes in the environment, while its remarkable capacity as a solvent, for both organic and inorganic materials, provides a vehicle for the interactions of many different substances.