362 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



come an inland sea upon which the commerce of an empire might 

 ride or be wrecked. 



lu the human system the demand for water is imperative. It is 

 wanted in considerable quantities to supply the secretions, and to 

 carry off effete matter from the system. If its waste was no more 

 rapid than the solids a quart per day would supply the demand ; 

 but the system requires from three to six pounds daily, or even 

 more. In extraordinary circumstances, as in the case of glass- 

 blowers, two and a half, and sometimes three gallons have been 

 consumed. The skin throws off from a pound and a half to five 

 pounds in twenty-four hours. More than half as much passes from 

 the lungs, and from thirty to forty ounces are secreted by the kid- 

 neys. Without water no vital process in the system could be 

 carried on for a single moment. Blood must be liquid or it could 

 not circulate, and oxygen and hydrogen are very important ele- 

 ments in the composition of the organs as well as the blood. By 

 it the temperature of the body is regulated and adjusted. 



When pure, water has neither taste, smell, nor pungency. It is 

 neither sour like vinegar, nor sweet like sugar, nor alkaline like 

 soda. It irritates no nerve of sensation, nor disturbs the tenderest 

 part of the animal frame. It penetrates unfelt into the subtlest 

 tissues. It soothes and assuages, lessening inflammation, lulling 

 pain, diluting unhealth}'' fluids, and washing waste materials from 

 the sickly and changing frame. 



" Voices from sick bods crave the healing shower." 



Water chemically pure, is one of the rarities in nature. Even 

 that which comes directly from the clouds contains mineral, animal, 

 and vegetable matter, bringing down numerous impurities, minute 

 spores, and invisible germs of microscopic animals aiul plants. 

 Snow contains ammoniacal impurities. Spring water contains the 

 soluble salts of the soil through which it percolates. It "tastes 

 of the ground," we say. Lakes, rivers, and streams contain a.vast 

 deal of impurities in suspension or solution ; vegetable and organic 

 matter, muriates of potash, soda, and magnesia, carbonate and sul- 

 phate of lime and other substances. Even the waters furnished by 

 the Hydrant Company of Syracuse, the Croton of New York, the 

 Schuylkill of Philadelphia, or the Cochituate,of Boston, contain 

 from twenty to forty grains of solid matter to the gallon. \Vv\\ 

 water is often rich enough in plant-food to nourish vegetation per- 

 fectly. Bog, or swamp water frequently contains salts of iron. The 

 Mississippi deposits upon its delta annually sediment that would 



