“The sea where living creatures were at one time immersed is now enclosed within their bodies.”

– Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics (Il sangue, il mare) –

Analogy between the chemical composition of seawater and the plasma of higher organisms:

Sodium 30.6 / 30.0
Magnesium 3.8 / 0.4
Calcium 1.2 / 1.0
Potassium 1.1 / 2.7
Chlorine 55.3 / 45.0
Sulfate 7.6 / 0.0
Carbonate 0.2 / 12.0
Bromine 0.2 / 0.0
Phosphoric Acid 0.0 / 0.4