. 
. 
MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR THOMAS CHARLES HOPE. 429 
He added examples thus— 
1 atom of base to 1 of oxygene, oxide of base. 
1 Bile 2 aati bis oxide. 
1 vee 3 ses ter oxide. 
2 atoms of base to 1 of oxygene, dis oxide. 
3 tee 1 ate tris oxide. 
2 ane 3 a dis-ter oxide. 
and so forth. 
The general adoption of some such nomenclature, he conceived, would give 
a desirable accuracy to chemical language. 
In a conversation with Dr Hopr in the early part of 1837, I noticed the dis- 
cordant opinions held by various philosophers on the maximum density of sea- 
water, and asked whether he had applied to this fluid the same beautiful and 
simple investigations by which he had ascertained the point of greatest density 
in fresh water. He replied in the negative. I strongly recommended the subject 
to his notice; because, as it appeared to me, several geologists and hydro- 
eraphers had deduced erroneous explanations of certain phenomena in the ocean 
from this undecided point. I added, that I should long ago have attempted to 
solve it, had I not considered that it would have been an interference with a sub- 
ject he had already so ably discussed. He thanked me for the hint, and the 
consequence was, the completion of the series of experiments, which he commu- 
nicated on the 2d of April 1838, to the Society, in an “ Inquiry whether sea-water 
has its maximum density at some degrees above its congealing point, after the manner 
of fresh water.” Most philosophers seem to have assumed, that sea-water followed 
the same law in cooling as fresh water; and its greatest density was generally 
considered to be at temperature 363° F. 
Dr Hore first tried the effect of cooling sea-water from 40° in vessels shaped 
like large thermometers, and found that it continued to shrink, by a diminution 
of temperature, like other bodies. He afterwards employed the same apparatus 
with which he had examined the peculiarity in fresh water; and he found, that 
in cooling from 40° to its freezing point, the coldest water was invariably at the 
bottom of the vessel. Therefore, the striking anomaly which so remarkably dis- 
tinguishes the cooling of fresh water, does not take place in sea-water. The 
importance of this conclusion will be manifest to those who have examined the 
theories of oceanic currents, and the remarkable fact, that the existence of banks 
or shoals in the ocean is marked by a fall in the temperature of the superin- 
cumbent water. 
Dr Hore reserved the examination of the precise point of the maximum 
density of sea-water for a future communication—which was never made. 
In 1848, the Society had two communications from Dr Horz. The first 
was—“ Observations on the Flowers of the Camellia Japonica, Magnolia Grandi- 
. flora, and Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum.” This paper was read on two evenings, 
