IS 



were (as by the rising of the Nile for many ages, among 

 other reasons may appear) we are to conclude, though 

 waters may be transplanted, they can neither be trans- 

 muted nor destroyed. And wherever removed they 

 will make their appearance agaki when at liberty, in the 

 same liquid state as they were before. 



The particles of water are exceeding small : for they 

 may be so divided from each other, that one square inch 

 of common water shall, when rarified, fill a space of 

 14000 square inches. And it is computed that at least 

 33000 particles of water may be held on the point of a 

 needle. By this it appears, that what we call water is 

 an assemblage of small transparent globules, which are 

 composed again of an infinite number of smaller parti- 

 cles or atoms of this elementary liquor. 



Water seems to be diffused every were, and mixed 

 with all bodies. Fire itself is not without it. Place 

 salt of tartar near the hottest fire, and it will imbibe 

 water, and thereby, in a short time, considerably in- 

 crease in weight. So a pewter vessel, with ice in it, 

 brought up from a cold vault into the hottest room, 

 in a dry summer-day, is immediately covered with little 

 drops of water, which is gathered from the air, and con- 

 densed by the coldness of the ice. 



Indeed the quantity of water which is afforded by the 

 dryest bodies is srupris : ng. Oil of vitriol long exposed 

 to a violent fire., to separate it from all its water, by 

 only standing a few minutes in the air, will afford as 

 much as at first. Hartshorn kept forty years, and turned 

 as hard and as dry as any metal, so as to strike fire with 

 & m'nt, yet distilled in a glass vessel, will yield an eighth 

 part of its quantity in water. Bones dried five and 

 twenty years, and almost as hard as iron, have by dis- 

 tillation, yielded half their weight in water. Yea, the 

 hardest stones, ground and distilled, always afford a por- 

 tion thereof. All animals and vegetables grow out of 

 water and salts, and by putrefaction return to the same. 



The chief properties of water are, 1. It is, next to 

 fire, the most penetrative of all bodies; so that a vessel 

 through which water cannot pass, will contain any thing. 



