The fishes in the sea are among the first creatures to be surprised by our action. For instantly all the salt in the ocean drops to the bottom like so much sand, and most salt-water fishes soon perish in the fresh water. If some one is about to drink a cup of tea and has sweetened it just to his taste, you can imagine his amazement when, bringing it to his lips, he finds himself drinking tasteless, white, milky water. Down in the bottom of the cup is a sediment of sugar, like so much fine gravel, with a brownish dust of tea covering it. To see whether or not the trouble is with the sugar itself, he may take some sugar out of the bowl and taste it,--it is just like white sand. Wondering what has happened, and whether he or the sugar is at fault, he reaches for the vinegar cruet. The vinegar is no longer clear, but is a colorless liquid with tiny specks of brown floating about in it. Tasting it, he thinks it must be dusty water. Salt, pepper, mustard, onions, or anything he eats, is absolutely tasteless, although some of the things _smell_ as strong as ever. To tell the truth, I doubt if the man has a chance to do all of this experimenting. For the salt in his blood turns to solid hard grains, and the dissolved food in the blood turns to dustlike particles. His blood flows through him, a muddy stream of sterile water. The cells of his body get no food, and even before they miss the food, most of the cells shrivel to drops of muddy water. The whole man collapses. Plants are as badly off. The life-giving sap turns to water with specks of the one-time nourishment floating uselessly through it. Most plant cells, like the cells in the man, turn to water, with fibers and dust flecks making it cloudy. Within a few seconds there is not a living thing left in the world, and the saltless waves dash up on a barren shore. Probably we had better let the SOLUTION switch alone, after all. Instead, here are a couple of experiments that will help to make clear what happens when anything dissolves to make a _solution_. EXPERIMENT 80. Fill a test tube one fourth full of cold water. Slowly stir in salt until no more will dissolve. Add half a teaspoonful more of salt than will dissolve. Dry the outside of the test tube and heat the salty water over the Bunsen burner. Will hot water dissolve things more readily or less readily than cold? Why do you wash dishes in hot water? EXPERIMENT 81. Fill a test tube one fourth full of any kind of oil, and one fourth full of water. Hold your thumb over the top of the test tube and shake it hard for a minute or two. Now look at it. Pour it out, and shake some prepared cleanser into the test tube, adding a little more water. Shake the test tube thoroughly and rinse. Put it away clean.