264 ARTIFICIAL SEA-WATER. 



Common table salt 3^ ounces. 



Epsom salts 3: » 



Chloride of magnesium . . . 200 gi-ains ) 



Chloride of potassium ... 40 „ j ^* 



To these salts, tlirown into a jar, a little less than 

 four quarts of water (New E-iver) were added, so that 

 the solution was of that density that a specific gravity 

 bubble 1026 would just sink in it. 



" The cost of these substances was — sulph. mag. 

 Id. ; chloride mag. Sd. ; chlor. pot. 1 JJ. ; salt, nil ; 

 — total, 5ld. per gallon. Of course, if a larger quantity 

 were made, the cost of the materials would be di- 

 minished, so that we may set down 5d. per gallon as 

 the maximum cost of sea-water thus made.f The 

 trouble is nothing, and no professional skill is re- 

 quisite. 



'' My manufacture was 'made on the 21st of April, 

 1854. The following day I poured off about half of the 

 quantity made (filtering it through a sponge in a glass 

 funnel) into a confectioner's show-glass. I put in a 

 bottom of small shore -pebbles, well washed in fresh 

 water, and one or two fragments of stone with fronds 

 of green sea- weed [Ulva latissima) growing thereon. 

 I would not at once venture upon the admission of 

 animals, as I wished the water to be first somewhat 

 impregnated with the scattered spores of the Ulva ; 

 and I thought that if any subtle elements were thrown 

 off from the growing vegetables, the water should 



* The table salt and the Epsom salts I weighed by Avoirdupois ; 

 it would have been more strictly accurate if I had reduced the 

 whole to Troy. Exact precision is not, however, at all essential. 



t This was considerably over-rated : the cost is probably about 

 Z\d. per gallon. 



