T4 A HISTORY OF 



bly, from the spoils of the former ; and produce, after some time, 

 similar appearances ; these dying, the water is then thought to change 

 no more. However, it very often happens, especially in hot climates, 

 that nothing can drive these nauseous insects from the ship's store 

 of water. They often increase to a very disagreeable and frightful 

 size, so as to deter the mariner, though parching with thirst, from 

 tasting that cup which they have contaminated. 



This water, as thus described, therefore, is a very different fluid 

 from that simple elementary substance upon which philosophical the- 

 ories have been founded ; and concerning the nature of which there 

 have been so many disputes. Elementary water is no way compound- 

 ed ; but is without taste, smell, or colour ; and incapable of being dis- 

 cerned by any of the senses, except the touch. This is the famous 

 dissolvent of the chymists, into which, as they have boasted, they can 

 reduce all bodies ; and which makes up all other substances, only by 

 putting on a different disguise. In some forms, it is fluid, transparent, 

 and evasive of the touch ; in others, hard, firm, and elastic. In some, 

 it is stiffened by cold ; in others, dissolved by fire. According to 

 them, it only assumes external shapes from accidental causes ; but the 

 mountain is as much a body of water, as the cake of ice that melts on 

 its brow ; and even the philosopher himself is composed of the same 

 materials with the cloud or meteor which he contemplates. 



Speculation seldom rests where it begins. Others disallowing the 

 universality of this substance, will not allow that in a state of nature 

 there is any such thing as water at all. " What assumes the appear- 

 ance," say they, " is nothing more than melted ice. Ice is the real ele- 

 ment of Nature's making ; and when found in a state of fluidity, it is 

 then in a state of violence. All substances are naturally hard ; but 

 some more readi'y melt with heat than others. It requires a great 

 heat to melt iron ; a smaller heat will melt copper : silver, gold, tin, 

 and lead, melt with smaller still : ice, which is a body like the rest, 

 melts with a very moderate warmth ; and quicksilver melts with the 

 smallest warmth of all. Water, therefore, is but ice kept in continual 

 fusion ; and still returning to its former state, when the heat is taken 

 away." Between these opposite opinions, the controversy has been 

 carried on with great ardour, and much has been written on both 

 sides ; and yet, when we come to examine the debate, it will proba- 

 bly terminate in this question, whether cold or heat first began their 

 operations upon water ? This is a fact of very little importance, 

 if known ; and, what is more, it is a fact we can never know. 



Indeed, if we examine into the operations of cold and heat upon 

 water, we shall find that they produce somewhat similar effects. Wa- 

 ter dilates in its bulk, by heat, to a very considerable degree ; and, 

 what is more extraordinary, it is likewise dilated by cold, in the same 

 manner. 



Jf water be placed over a fire, it grows gradually larger in bulk, as 

 it becomes hot, until it begins to boil ; after which no art can either 

 increase its bulk or its heat. By increasing the fire, indeed, i. 

 may be more quicKiy evaporated away ; but its heat and its bulk still 

 outinue the same. By the expanding of this fluid, by heat, philoso- 

 phers have found a way to determine the warmth or the coldo?ss 



