Seawater- 17£ 



The above are not, however, the only experiments which 

 have been made upon this beverage. Several- persons wish- 

 ing to ascertain its effects by individual experience, have 

 voluntarily confined themselves to its use ; and the members 

 of the commission of inquiry are almost in the daily practice 

 of taking it. The captain of the Duclathas taken it every day 

 at his meals for twenty days, and has experienced not the 

 smallest inconvenience from its U8e. M. M. Vasse, and Cha- 

 telain, apothecaries to the marine at Brest, have occasionally 

 kept the water in their mouths for four hours, by constantly 

 renewing it, and have not found either the sharp taste, or 

 other caustic qualities, which have been said to be peculiar to 

 it. And here it may be proper to state, that the mouths of all 

 the individuals who had taken the water for a length of time 

 were examined, without the detection of any thing in them 

 either of a swollen or inflammatory appearance. Such are the 

 reports of commissioners employed to investigate the effects 

 of distilled seawater, who, although separated at a great dis- 

 tance from each other, and having no communication, all agree 

 in the inference, that it may be employed without any injury 

 to the health, both as a beverage and in cookery, for the space 

 of at least a month ; and the fair presumption is, that it may be 

 employed for a much longer time ; and that in consequence, 

 it must be considered as a very happy resource in long voy- 

 ages of discovery. 



