AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 123 



holds by the action of sea water on the soluble matter of 

 the wood, the same effccft will be produced by the addi- 

 tion of salt water to dung or to vegetable matters. The 

 generation of the hepar is to be ascribed solely to the 

 vitriolic salts contained in sea water, and there is some 

 reason to suspect, that sea salt, or muriat of soda, may 

 suffer a decomposition in this putrefactive process, and 

 that the marine acid thereof may be decomjjosed. 



The putrefaiflion of sea water is not confined to the 

 bilge water in vessels. The water of the sea itself, in 

 Jtertain southern latitudes, undergoes a material change, 

 emitting, during long calms, a putrid offensive smell; and 

 water intended for the purpose of making salt, kept too 

 long in the reservoirs during summer, will sufier such an 

 alteration in its nature, as to be rendered incapable of 

 vieldinsi chrvstals of sea salt. A month or six weeks of 

 warm weather is in this latitude sufficient to produce 

 the change, which is prevented by letting out of the re- 

 servoir, every fourteen days, part of the old brine, antl 

 taking in a fresh supply of sea water, frequently very - 

 inferior in coacentration or strength to that which is 



0^2 obliged 



