REPORT ON THE COMPOSITION OF OCEAN-WATER. 
149 
I now give in a tabular form the results of all the sea-water gas measurements 
carried out by me, or rather (under my constant and direct superintendence, and with 
my frequent co-operation) by Mr. Robert Lennox, to whom I feel greatly indebted for 
the conscientiousness and the unflagging zeal and energy with which he devoted himself 
to his work. These are followed by a statement, also tabular, of the net results of both 
my own and Mr. Buchanan’s gas analyses. After this will be found a research on the 
coefficients of absorption, by fresh and by sea water, of nitrogen and oxygen gas, which 
I carried out, in conjunction with Mr. Lennox, in order to be able to interpret the results 
of the gas analyses. Finally, I devote a few paragraphs to a discussion of the results. 
I. Results of my own Gasometric Analyses. 
In the following table Y 0 stands for the total volume of gas (in c.c. reduced to 0° and 
760 mm. of dry -gas pressure) in one litre of the respective sea- water, measured at its 
natural temperature ; v 0 designates the conjoint volume of nitrogen and oxygen contained 
in those V 0 volumes, similarly reduced ; so that V 0 — v 0 represents the carbonic acid. 
Whence it will be easily understood that Columns VIII. report the percentage compo- 
sition of the entire gas, while Columns IX. give the percentage composition of the 
mixture of nitrogen and oxygen which is left after removal of the carbonic acid. 
