i72 Sea-water. 
The inside of the bones of sheep’s legs furnish a sort of 
membranous glue, which supplies, with advantage, the place of 
isinglass in the fabrication of silk stuffs. 
I give you these particulars, not because I think they contain 
any thing new to you, in principle, but because I may have hit 
upon some details with which you were unacquainted. 
Ant. XX. Experiments made in France upon the Use of Dis- 
tilled Sea-water for Domestic Purposes, and its Effects on 
the Constitution, when taken as a Beverage.* 
Ix consequence of the great want of good fresh water ik 
many of the maritime parts of France, the government some 
time since ordered some experiments to be made, upon an ¢t 
tensive scale,in order to ascertain how far sea-water, when 
distilled, could be used with success. Little or no use had 
hitherto been made of water so prepared, except in long oY” 
ages, and chiefly then only as a matter of necessity. There 
are above two hundred leagues of sea-coast in France, where, 
to the breadth of many miles, the inhabitants are compelled t@ 
make use of bad and impure water, which, in many cases, 18 
injurious to the health of themselves and their animals. In 
similar cases, it was the custom of the ancients to construct. 
cisterns; but these are not only expensive in themselves, bet 
their utility depends upon the quantity of rain that falls; while 
upon the shores of the most barren places, nature has sup 
plied a variety of vegetable matter, which, when dried, W 
not only serve as a fuel for the purposes of distillation, but 
from the ashes of which might be obtained a saline substance 
sufficient to repay the expense of collecting, drying and burt 
ing. Thus the fuel for the distillation of sea-water would, 
reality, cost nothing, while its preparation would employ many 
individuals, particularly women and children. Before, 6h 
*Taken from the Philosophical Magazine, and by that work from HF 
Annales de Chimie and de Physique, for January, 1818. 
