The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-09-05
SEA SCUM AND ITS NATURE.
4 Scientific Inquiry into One OF the Ocean
Problems.

4 Scientific Inquiry into One OF the Ocean
Problems.
An interesting paper on thi,trulbiect
was read by Mf. Ii. Tyron at s6ent
meeting Of the Royal society of Queels-'
land. Having remarked that the sub
ject of his communication was sea
scum which was to be met with at this
season of the year (about March, to a
greater or less extent all up the coast,
and which, on being washed ashore,
manifested its presence more especially
in the unpleasant odor which its decom-
position gave rise to, the author pro-
ceeded to relate that the same sea scum
had been noticed in the bay by a naval
surgeon, nearly thirty years since, who
had left record of the phenomenon, and
that it had been reported from the
Abrolhos, and probably from the estuary
of the Murray. Also, that remote from
the Australian shores it occurred in
the open seas of the great oceans, in
the Indian Ocean, and in the Hoang Ho
or Yellow Sea. AS met with at sea, this
scum, sea sawdust, or whales spawn,
as it had been indifferently named, often
covered interruptedly areas of several
hundred square miles in extent, giving
the ocean streaky appearance
On close examination it had been
found to consist of innumerable small
particles, which had suggested the COM
parison of chopped hay when magnifed,
and that when still further examined
these fragments resolved themselves
into a number of regular tubules placed
side by side in single layer, and that
each tubule was divided by scepta into
cells, which contained fluid in which
there were numerous granules. In its
free state in the ocean the scum was
| stated to be yellow brown, and that
soon after being washed ashore it be-
came green. The exhibition of these
characters under the appearances de-
scribed made it more than probable that
in the sea scum of the bay. as in the
case of that of the other localities
mentioned, we had TO deal with a
| TrchOd6mium, q genus of minute
| AlqG, first characterized by Gutenberg,
from matter collected on the Red Sea,
and which he had named T'rich0demiua
erytbr0unl. Other species had since
been discovered, but this, which consti-
tuted the scum under consideration,
generally correspondent to the T. erYth-
rBum as defined by its author and as
understood by more recent writers; and,
moreover, this alga had been mentioned
by Otto Sender in an enumeration of
Australian plants Of this order as occur
ring in north and tropical east Australia.
The author proceeds to remark that on
keeping this scum in sea water it after
awhile decomposed with liberation of
gas, during which process the soluble
pigment escaped from the cells into the
water, which consequently assumed a
wine-red color. This state of things
never occrl bed naturally in Queensland
waters, but probably under certain con-
ditions of temperature and salinity of
the sea it had been occasionally re-
marked in the Indian Ocean and various
arms of the sea connected with it, and
al explanation was thus afforded in the
phenomena thereby occasioned for those
SEAS VI DlOOu NulCu wy dSClo idNC wv
scribed, and which even to this day are
usually relegated to the region Of myth.
Descriptions of these remarkable APP
peGrances were then read, and it was
stated that Gutenberg had associated
the purple color occasionally exhibited
by the Red Sea with the presence of this
particular alga which he described, and
that the title Red Sea had been de-
rived from the exhibition of this phenOm.
enon. This subject was briefly alluded
to, and the author of the paper further
stated that the bad odOr was also an at
tendant circumstance of the decOmposl-
ton of the scum, and that, like the pur'
pie color, it was scarcely, if at all, pre-
scented by ocean scum in the latitude o.
Brisbane, and even still further north
but that in other localities and in the In
dian Ocean its pungent odor was decid
edly injurious to man. 1t was further
stated that the absence of color and de
cided pungency had been remarked IL
the 2rSchOdeSniinm of the Yellow Sea
and, in conclusion. that the scum a.
found at the estuary of the Murray wa
poisonous in very pronounced degree
to cattle who had swallowed it, and tina
some of the mysterious losses Of cattle
in the bay referred to the action of som,
cngmatical poison plant that might b'
connected with the occurrence OF TIL
scum. Federal AuStrdidSidn
N