146 
“ On the Composition of the Water of the Irish Sea/’ by 
T. E. Thorpe, Ph.D., and Mr. E. H. Morton. 
Thanks to the investigations of Forchhammer, Yon Bibra, 
Bischof, and others, our knowledge concerning the nature 
and distribution of the saline constituents of sea water and 
of the causes of the variations in its composition as observed 
in various parts of the world, is tolerably extensive and pre- 
cise. English chemists however have contributed next to 
nothing to the general stock of our information on this sub- 
ject. This is not a little remarkable, especially when we 
consider the peculiarly favourable condition in which this 
country is placed for researches of this kind, by reason of 
its insular position. A few observations by John Davy 
made in the course of his long voyages, two memoirs by 
Marcet in the Philosophical Transactions for 1819 and 1822 
on the temperature and saltness of various seas, and an 
elaborate analysis by Schweitzer of the water of the English 
Channel made in 1838, constitute by far the chief portion of 
the work done in this direction by English chemists. The 
chemical history of the sea is mainly to be derived from the 
researches and observations of chemists principally French 
and German, the majority of whom were located at consider- 
able distances from the sea-board, and who laboured therefore 
under all the disadvantages which this circumstance neces- 
sarily entails. So far as we can learn the water of the Irish 
Channel has never been analysed. We have been induced 
therefore to undertake its analysis in the hope of supplying 
information respecting the nature and extent of the modifica- 
tions effected in the composition of the sea by its proximity to 
our coasts. Accordingly Captain Temple of the “ Bahama 
Bank” Light Ship kindly collected for us a quantity of the 
water in the immediate neighbourhood of his vessel. The 
vessel is situated in lat. 54° 21' N. and long. 4° 11/ W., seven 
miles W.N.W. of Ramsey, Isle of Man, and is placed nearly 
equi-distant from the shores of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
