Medicinal Effects of Hard Water. — Water, 

 every one knows, is a necessary of life, and the 

 knowledge is as general that hard water is very 

 disagreeable when employed for washing, but not 

 one of our readers, probably, ever minutely exa- 

 mined the consequences of using this hard water 

 for drinking, cooking, and other household pur- 

 poses. It is one of those occurrences of every 

 day life which we meet with, deprecate, and sub- 

 mit to : we grumble, but are not sufficiently aroused 

 to make an effort to remove the evil. We would 

 earnestly endeavor to dispel this apathy, for the 

 conseijuences are largely, very largely, injurious 

 to the health and the purses of those who thus 

 submit; and we do so the more confidently, be- 

 cause our attention has been recalled to the sub- 

 ject by a most interesting Report by the General 

 Board of Health on the Supply of Water to the 

 Metropolis. A report drawn up chiefly by Mr. 

 Chad wick, and which is only equally creditable 

 with other similar documents, indicative of his 

 ability and judgment. 



Now, with regard to the influence of hard wa- 

 ter upon the health, it appears from the universal 

 testimony of medical men from Hippocrates down 

 to the day on which we are writing, that it has a 

 tendenc}^ to constipate the bowels of the drinker. 

 " Hard water," says Dr. Todd Thompson, " under 

 whatever name found, should be excluded." Dr. 

 Sutherland says: — 



" Having lived for a number of years in Liver- 

 pool, a town which has a supply of very hard 

 water for domestic use, my attention has for a 

 length of time been called to the fact, that the 

 continued use of this water has a somewhat pecu- 

 liar effect on the digestive functions in certain 

 susceptible constitutions. There are so many 

 local causes of disease in the town, which may be 

 left behind by going to other more favorable lo- 

 calities, that it is not very easy to state positively 

 how much injury may be done by the quality of 

 the water alone, but after some experience and 

 observation, both in mj'self and others, I arrived 

 at conclusions which I frequently expressed seve- 

 ral )^ears ago, and which nothing has since occur- 

 red to alter, and these are, that in the class of 

 constitutions referred to, the hard water tends to 

 produce visceral obstructions; that it diminishes 

 the natural secretions, produces a constipated or 

 irregular state of the bowels, and consequently de- 

 ranges the health. I have repeatedly known 

 these complaints to vanish on leavma the town, 

 and to reappear immediately on returning to it, 



Vol. v. 15 



and it was such repeated occurrences which fixed 

 my attention on the hard selenitic water of the 

 new red sandstone as the probable cause, as I be- 

 lieve it to be, of these affections." 



In these opinions he is sustained by the testimo- 

 ny of Drs. Heberden, Paton of Paisley, Leech and 

 Cunningham of Glasgow, Wolstenholme of Bolton, 

 and many others. 



Dr. Playlair enforces his conviction that hard 

 water is injurious to human beings, by referring to 

 its effect upon animals. He observes that — 



" Horses have an instinctive love for soft water, 

 and refuse hard water if they can possibly get the 

 former. Hard water produces a rough and staring 

 coat on horses, and renders them liable to gripes. 

 Pigeons also refuse hard water if they obtain ac- 

 cess to soft. Cleghorn states, that hard water in 

 Minorca causes diseases in the system of certain 

 animals, especially of sheep. So much are race- 

 horses influenced by the quality of the water, that 

 it is not unfrecpicnt to carry a supply of soft wa- 

 ter to the localitv in which the race is to take 

 place, lest, there being only hard water, the hor- 

 ses should lose condition. Mr. Youalt, in his 

 book called ' The Horse,' remarking upon the 

 desirableness of soft water for the horse, says, 

 ' Instinct or experience has made the horse him- 

 self conscious of this, for he will never drink hard 

 water if he has access to soft; he will leave the 

 most transparent water of the well for a river, 

 although the water may be turbid, and even for 

 the muddiest pool.' And again, in another place, 

 he says, ' Hard water drawn fresh from the well 

 will assuredly make the coat of a horse unaccus- 

 tomed to it stare, and will not unfrequcnlly gripe 

 or further injure him.' " 



To sum up the whole, there is no doubt with 

 medical men that health is promoted by employing 

 — and that for invalids one great aid to recovery 

 is by the use of — " the softest, lightest, and jiurest 

 of water." Every one has heard of the sick and 

 the weakly resorting to Malvern to drink its reno- 

 vating waters, and our readers will be startled, 

 and feel more forcibly what has bee.i said, when 

 we add, from the report before us, that " at Mal- 

 vern the spring water in the highest reputation for 

 medicinal quality, is a ivattr only remarkable for 

 its purity." Cottage Gardener. 



Reform in Nomenclature. — If a man talks 



of ViKGILIUS, or HORATIUS, or JUVENALIS, he is 



set down in Scotland as a Dominie, and in England 

 as an ass. Yet the naturalist who dares to speak 



