142 OBSERVATIONS on the 



lime, though according to the law of attradions, we 

 might expe<St to find in it fulphate of foda. The vaft 

 amount of animal matter exifhing in the fea, would lead 

 one a priori to a perfuafion that in certain cafes, particu- 

 larly along marfhes and fhores where the flagnating water 

 was much heated, putrefaction would engendery^^/zc acid, 

 and that this would in fome meafure mingle with the 

 water in its vicinity, and not fly away wholly in vapour. 

 The quantity of this acid is fo confiderable in fome coves 

 and bays where fait works have been eftablifhed, that a 

 quantity of it adheres to the muriate of foda or common 

 fait and vitiates its quality. And this happens in fome 

 fituations to fo high a degree, that Neumman (Chemical 

 Works by Lewis, p. 392,; takes notice of it, obferving 

 " that fea water often contains a nitrous matter, the acid 



SPIRIT DISTILLED FROM SEA SALT PROVING A 



MENSTRUUM FOR GOLD, which the marine acid by 

 itfelf never does, and which nothing but the nitrous will 

 enable it to do. Though however this is frequently the 

 cafe, it is not always : I have examined marine fait whofe 

 acid had no adion upon gold." — As to the muriatic acid, 

 whether it is as fome of the older chemifts fuppofe a mo- 

 dification of the fulphuric and the nitrous, or as certain 

 of the moderns believe, but a compound bafis of fulphuric 

 and hydrogene, there is evidence enough of its exiftence 

 in the ocean, in very great plenty. — On the whole, it may 

 be concluded that fea-watcr always contains muriatic acid, 

 frequently feptic scci^fometimes fulphuric. 



There are thus three predominating alkalies and as 

 many acids in the ocean ; and by the intervention of 

 water they are liquefied and put in a condition to aft each 

 upon the other. Confequently the foda in the firft place, 

 as the ftronger alkali, attaches and neutralizes the acids in 

 the order of chemical affinity, and forms fulphate, feptate 

 and muriate of foda. But as the two former are com- 

 paratively 



