162 Dr. Marcet on the specific gravity, and temperature. 
the kindness of several friends, of a great variety of specimens 
of sea water ; and I was preparing to examine them, when a 
most deplorable accident deprived science of the sagacious 
philosopher from whose friendship and enlightened assistance 
I had anticipated so much advantage. Procrastination and 
delay were the natural consequence of this misfortune; and I 
should probably have entirely lost sight of the subject, had not 
my intention been again directed to it by the late expeditions to 
the Arctic regions, and the great zeal and kindness of some of 
the officers engagedin them, in procuring for me specimens 
of sea water, collected in different latitudes, and under peculiar 
circumstances, so as to add greatly to the value of those 
which I previously possessed.* 
I must not omit to observe, however, that this subject has, at 
various periods, engaged the attention of philosophers. Thus 
Bergman, f Watson, £ Nairn, § Bladh, || Lavoisier,^ 
Pages,** Phipps, - f-f Litchtemberg,J£ Pfaff,§§ Bouillon- 
La Grange and Vogel, ||| j &c., have turned their attention to 
the subject of sea water, and ascertained some valuable, though 
in general detached and often discordant facts ; and more 
lately the celebrated traveller Humboldt, Dr. Murray of 
* I am also indebted, both to Sir Joseph Banks and to the British Museum, for 
various specimens of water from the same expedition. 
f Bergman’s Opusc. Vol. I. J Watson’s Chemical Essays, Vol. V. p. 91. 
$ Philos. Trans, for 1776. || Kir wan’s Geological Essays, p. 350. 
Lavoisier’s Memoirs, 1772. 
** Pages’ Voyage round the World, from 1767 to 1771. 
jf Phipps’s Voyage towards theNorth Pole, 1773. 
I I Litchtemberg, in Schewigger’s Journal II. 256. §§ Pfaff, ibid. 
|{|| Annales deChimie, Vol. LXXXVII. ; and Ann. of Philos. IV. 200. 
Humboldt, Relat. Historique, Vol. I. 
