Abstract
IN reference to Mr. Strachan's letter in NATURE, vol. ix. p. 183, calling attention to the discrepancy between Dr. Frank-land's results and my own, permit me to state that they were not obtained from the same series of samples, and that the figures given by Dr. Frankland were, I believe, obtained by the use of a balance on shore, and also that from the way in which his specimens were packed, they were not liable to any appreciable loss by evaporation. They were not, however, taken from that part of the North Atlantic which was examined during the time that I was on board the Porcupine in 1869, to which alone my observations refer. My own results were obtained, as stated on p. 503 of “The Depths of the Sea,” by delicate glass hydrometers, so graduated that the sp. gr. could easily be read to the fourth decimal place. Two instruments only were employed for the 105 observations made, and though they gave identical results, I had no opportunity of comparing their indications with the results obtained by a balance from the same specimen of water. I may remark here, however, that though the absolute results may not be quite correct, the relations between the sp. gr. of surface, intermediate, and bottom waters, pointed out on p. 505 of “The Depths of the Sea,” as well as the range of variation, are probably very near the truth, since the same instruments were employed in all the determinations, and at the end of the series they indicated the same as at the commencement, when placed in a test solution, which was preserved for the purpose of detecting possible variations in the instruments themselves.
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CARPENTER, W. Specific Gravity of Sea-Water. Nature 9, 282 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/009282a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009282a0
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