OF SEA-WATER IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE OCEAN. 
219 
have evaporated through the cork during the long time which often elapsed between 
the time when it was taken up from the sea, and the time when it was analyzed. It 
is, however, easy to see whether the quantity of water in the bottle has diminished, or 
whether the cork has been corroded ; in both cases the sample has been rejected, but I 
must remark that these cases have been rare. In the last three or four years all the 
samples which have been taken according to my direction have been marked on the neck 
of the bottle with a file, on that place to which the water reached when the bottle was 
filled. 
As to the calculation of the combinations of the different substances that have been 
found by the analysis, I have chosen the following method : — 
The whole quantity of lime was supposed to be united with sulphuric acid. 
What remained of sulphuric acid after the saturation of lime, was supposed to be 
combined with magnesia. 
What remained of magnesia after the saturation of sulphuric acid, was supposed as 
magnesium to enter into combination with chlorine, and form chloride of magnesium. 
The potash was supposed to form chloride of potassium. 
That portion of chlorine which was not combined with magnesium or potassium, was 
supposed to form a neutral combination with sodium. 
Lastly, that small quantity of different substances, “ silica, &c.,” was added, and the 
sum of all these combinations thus calculated forms the number which in the Tables 
is called “All Salts.” It is hardly necessary to remark, that it is quite indifferent how 
we suppose the acids and bases to be combined in sea-water, the sum must always 
be the same, provided the salts are neutral, and all the acids (chlorine included) are 
determined, as well as all the bases, with the exception of soda. 
On the Distribution of the Salts in the different parts of the Sea . 
The next question to be considered refers to the proportion between all the salts 
together and the water ; or to express it in one word, I may allow myself to call it the 
salinity of the sea-water, and in connexion with this salinity or strength, the proportion 
of the different solid constituent parts among themselves. On comparing the older 
chemical analyses of sea-water, we should be led to suppose that the water in the 
different seas had, besides its salinity, its own peculiar character expressed by the different 
proportions of its most prevalent acids and bases, but the following researches will show 
that this difference is very trifling in the ocean, and has a more decided character only 
near the shores, in the bays of the sea, and at the mouth of great rivers, wherever 
the influence of the land is prevailing. 
In the Tables which are annexed to this paper I have always calculated the single 
substances and the whole quantity of salt for 1000 parts of sea- water, but besides this 
I have calculated the proportion between the different substances determined, referred 
to chlorine =100, and of all the salts likewise referred to chlorine. This last number 
is found if we divide the sum of all the salts found in 1000 parts of any sea-water by 
the quantity of chlorine found in it, and I call it the coefficient of that sample of sea- 
mdccclxv. 2 H 
