Securities against Fire, fyc. 297 



perhaps a smaller aqueduct of a still choicer quality may be provi- 

 ded for decanters ; and private subscriptions may defray the ex- 

 pense. So much for our second expedient for obviating the impu- 

 rity of the water in certain cities. — We proceed to remark that, 

 3d. Rain ivater is still an useful resource ; which, if it does not give 

 content, as collected from the roofs of our houses, may be obtained 

 in sufficient purity by means of fine table cloths stretched out in the 

 time of rain, and pressed down in the center by a smooth and clean 

 stone. Such water, being properly preserved in a cellar, in close 

 vessels or in glass, may be used for decanters, for our tea and coffee, 

 and for soups. Fabrics of less delicacy may be used for collecting 

 ram water to be employed in boiling our meats and vegetables. 

 With respect to water for common cleansing in house work, it will 

 always be found in the common springs and wells of cities. 4th. 

 Distilled water is the last resource to be mentioned on the present 

 occasion ; and it may be resorted to by those to whom it may give 

 pleasure. An admirable man, the elder Dr. Heberden, is said to 

 have used distilled water for the drink of himself and family ; and as 

 it can easily be had good by various processes, it cannot be improper 

 to mention it here ; were it only to show how careless those must 

 be who are content with such water as was given to M. Volney. 

 Better would it be to have country water brought into a city by its 

 milk carts or other conveyances, than to be satisfied with such foul 

 and perhaps unhealthy water, as that which becomes spontaneously 

 " ropy," and sends forth ultimately a " cadaverous stench."* 





* On the genera] subject of this article, we add, that Mr. Dalton arranges water 

 according to its purity thus : first distilled water, then rain, then liver, then spring 

 water. — By puri y, he means freedom from foreign bodies held in solution; but he 

 says, that the hardest spring water seldom holds in solution more than one thou- 

 sandth part of its weight of foreign matter ; and that this is usually carbonate and 



sulphate of lime. See Dalton's New System of Chemical Philosophy, Part 2, p, 

 271. 



The perfect accuracy with which w r ater may be separated in a pure s*ate irom 

 the waters of the sea, and other masses in which it maybe found combined or inter- 

 mixed, is remarkable. But these powers of elimination or extraction are not con- 

 fined to evaporation by the sun, or to distillation. Fishes possess similar powers; 

 for although they drink a salt element, and are wholly enveloped in it, yet, ex- 

 cepting oysters, &c, no salt is found in the flesh of. fish. Nor are the won- 

 ders of creation confined to diminutions or extractions, (as we have called them) 

 since they are also seen in conversions and in combinations. And such is the con- 

 flection in these works of creation, that most of the greater agents in nature are em- 

 ployed by turns in a variety of these operations. — Where the aid of a natural labor* 



