. Bhod-red Colour of Water. 1 33 



but to the salt, and faded on being dried. — Descr. de TEq. H. 

 Etat. Moderne, t. i. p. 279; Linck, Phys. Erdbeschreib. 1. 

 s. 328. 



Science, in this respect, received very important additions in 

 1815, when an appearance of this kind in a lake near to Lubo- 

 tin, in the south of Prussia, excited the attention of the people. 

 Red, violet or grass-green spots were observed in the lake. It was 

 the end of harvest. In winter the ice was coloured with it three 

 lines in thickness on the surface, while beneath it was colourless. 

 The inhabitants in the neighbourhood, like the Greeks in Homer, 

 and the Arabians at Kaswini, prognosticated great misfortunes 

 from the appearance. It fortunately happened during the active 

 labours of the chemist Klaproth, who took an opportunity of as- 

 certaining the chemical ingredients of the colour. He found 

 that an albuminous vegetable matter, with a particular colouring 

 matter very similar to indigo, produced the appearance, and 

 concluded the decomposition of vegetables in harvest to be the 

 cause of the appearance, which could therefore only take place 

 in harvest. The transition of colour, from green to violet and 

 red, Klaproth explained by the absorption of more or less oxy- 

 gen. This fact shows how a chemist of accurate observation 

 may be able to discern the real nature of organic matter, and 

 where the investigations of the botanist must cease. It is very 

 probable, that, in locality and position, a botanist, practised in 

 the examination of microscopic bodies, would not have disco- 

 vered decayed vegetable matter, but perfect vegetables. The 

 transportation of the water to Berlin in close vessels, must indeed 

 have entirely destroyed them, and their colour may thereby have 

 mingled more intimately with the. water. Scoresby mentions 

 that, in 1820, he observed the water of the Greenland sea striped 

 alternately with green and blue, and that the particular colours 

 were produced by small animalcula?. He reckoned in a single 

 drop of water 26,450 animalcules; hence reckoning 60 drops to a 

 drachm, there would be in a gallon a number one half of the 

 population of the globe. This coloured water, to an extent of 

 6° of latitude, formed one-fourth of the surface of the Greenland 

 sea. The animalculae observed by Scoresby, were small medusa- 

 like creatures, from one-third to two-thirds of a line in length. 

 The water had the smell of oysters. — Scoresby'^s Ace. of the 



