s 



y 



/ 



66 



R E xM ARKS 



o c p; A N . 



y 



O N 



T H K 



of certainty which philofophers would require. I will therefore 



■ \ 



confine myfelf to fome probable hints concerning their real caufes. 



The iiril: fpecies of luminous appearance feems to be produced by 

 a caufc altogether different from the reft, and if I may venture to 

 declare my opinion on the fubjeft, I ihould think, that this light 

 IS owing to eleftricity. We know very well, that the motion of a^ 

 ihip through the water in a gale, is extremely fwift, and the fric- 

 tion caufed by this motion very great: for we find that the fea agi- 

 tated by a gale of wind is remarkably warmer, than the air *.. 

 The bituminous fubftances, v/hich cover the fides of fliips, the- 



nail 



fticking in the bottom, and the conducing power of water 



will equally ferve to explain the pollibility of fuch an electricity. 



The fecond fpecies of luminous appearance in fca vv^ater feems to-^ 

 be a real pliofphoreal light. It is vei-y well known, that many 

 animal bodies putrify and are difix)lved in the fea, and that almoft 

 every part of animal and m.any mineral bodies,, and the air itfelf, 

 contains the acid of phofphorus as an integrant part \. The addition, 

 of any inflammable principle to this acid, will produce the fub- 

 ftance we c;^ phofphorus. Every one who has feen falted fifh dry-- 

 ing, muft know that many of them become phofphoreal. It is 

 likev/ife a well eflablifl:ied fa (ft, that ^^ ocean, itfelf after a lonp- 



5 ' continued 



'* See a 'I'oyage t(FJoards the North Polc^ ly Capt, Phlpps* Jlppendlx. p. 147. 



f Sec Elcmcns de Mineralogic cocimaflltpic par M» Sa^^-e, Paris 1777, 8vo, P^-eface p. xk 

 vol, ILp, 376, 377, 378. 



» ^ 



f t 



(* 



. £ 



