Securities against Fire, &c. 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 water 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 
rain 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 general subject of this article, we add, that Mr. Dalton arranges water 
according to its purity thus: first distilled water, then rain, then iver, then spring 
water.—By purily, 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 water may be separated in a pure state from 
the waters of the sea, and other masses in which it may be 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- 
neetion 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- 
