The Abbe Nollet was long of opinion, that the light of the sea proceeded from electricity ; and others have had recourse to the same principle, and shown that the luminous points in the surface of the sea are produced merely by friction.
There are, however, two other hypo theses, which have more generally divid ed bet weep them the solution of this the one of these ascribes tt to the shining of luminous insects or animal cules, and the other to the light proceed. ing from the putrefaction of animal sub stances. The Abbe Nollet, who at first considered this luminousness as an elec trical phenomenon, having had an oppor. tunity of observing the circumstances of it when he was at Venice in 1749, relin quished his former opinion, and conclud ed that it was occasioned either by the lu minous aspect, or by some liquor or efflu via of an insect, which he particularly de scribes, though he does not altogether exclude other caitses, and especially the spawn or fry of fish. A similar conjec ture is proposed by a correspondent of Dr. Franklin, in a letter read at the Royal Society in 1.56; the writer of which ap prehends, that this appearance may be caused by a great number of little animals, floating on the surface of the sea. And Mr. Forster, in his account of a voyage round the world with Captain Cook, de. scribes this phenomenon as a kind of blaze of the sea; and having attentively exa mined some of the shining water, ex preSses his conviction that the appear ance was occasioned by innumerable mi nute animals of a round shape, moving through the water in all directions, which show separately as so many luminous sparks when taken up on the hand : he imagines that these small great inous lumi nous specks may be the young fry of cer tain species of some medusa:: or blubber.
And M. Dagelat and M. Rigaud observed several times, and in different parts of the ocean, such luminous appearances by vast masses of different animalcules ; and a few days after the sea was covered, near the coasts, with whole banks of small fish in innumerable multitudes, which they supposed had proceeded from the shining animalcules.
But M. le Roi, after giving much atten tion to this phenomenon, concludes, that it is not occasioned by any shining insects, especially as, after carefully examining with a microscope, some of the luminous points, he found them to have no appear ance of an animal ; and he also found, that the mixture of a little spirits of wine with water just drawn from the sea would give the appearance of a great number of little sparks, which would continue visible longer than those in the ocean : the same effect was produced by all the acids, and various other liquors. M. le Roi is far from asserting that there are no luminous insects in the sea : for he allows that se veral gentlemen have found them ; but he is satisfied that the sea is luminous chiefly on some other account, though he does not so much as offer a conjecture with respect to the true cause.
Other authors, equally dissatisfied with the hypothesis of lominous insects for explaining the phenomenon which is the subject of this article, have ascribed it to some substance of the phosphoric kind, arising from putrefaction.
SEA, in law: The sea shall be open to all merchants. The main sea beneath the low water mark, and round England, is part of England ; and the admiralty has jurisdiction there.