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Art. ’XXX . — On the Quantity of Saline Matter in the Water 
(f'the North Polar Seas. By Andrew Fyfe, M.D. Fellow 
^ of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and Lec- 
turer on Chemistry. Communicated by the Author. 
Different statements have been given of the quantity of 
saline matter in the waters of the ocean, some chemists asserting 
that the waters taken in different situations do not differ materi- 
ally ; others stating that the waters of different latitudes, and at 
different depths, contain different quantities of saline matter. 
According to Gaubius, the sea-water which he examined con- 
tained 3.01 per cent, of saline matter. Bouillon, Lagrange, and 
Vogel, in their experiments on the waters of the English Chan- 
nel, of the Bay of Biscay, and of the Mediterranean, found that 
the saline ingredients amounted to 3.47 per cent. Bergman states, 
that the water from the latitudes of the Canaries, contained 3.59 
per cent. ; while, according to Dr Murray, the saline matter in 
the water of the Frith of Forth is only 3.03 per cent. From the 
experiments of Pages, it appears that sea- water, procured in south 
latitude 1® 16', contained 3.5 per cent, of saline ingredients ; in 
south latitude 20*^’, the quantity was 3.9 per cent. ; in south la- 
titude 40°, it was 4 per cent. ; and in 46°, it was 4.5 per cent. ; 
the quantity of saline matter gradually becoming greater on re- 
ceding from the equator. 
In the waters collected in the northern latitudes by the same 
gentleman, the proportion of saline ingredients did not differ 
from each other, being in the different trials 4 per cent. 
From experiments which I have lately made on sea-water, 
procured in different degrees of north latitude, and from diffe- 
rent depths, there does not seem to be any material diff'erence in 
the quantity of saline matter. The specimens which I have 
examined were given to me by Professor Jameson, for whom 
they were collected by Captain Scoresby in his voyages to the 
Greenland Seas, and also by Captain Ross of his Majesty’s 
ship Isabella, during the late northern expedition. 
The experiments to ascertain the quantity of saline ingredi- 
ents in the different specimens of sea-water, were performed on 
a large scale, that there might be as little chance of error as pos- 
sible. For this purpose, ten ounces of each were slowly evapo- 
