fl . v ' < 
W A T 
air, to mount with it up to their tops, where the 
'Water prefently precipitates, gleeting down by the 
crannies of the Hones ; and part of the vapours enter- 
ing into the caverns of the hills, the Water thereof 
gathers, as in an alembic, in the bafons of Hones ; and 
thele being once full, the overplus of the Water runs 
down at the loweH place of the bafon, and breaking 
out by the files of the hills, form fingle fprings, 
many of which run down by the vallies or guts be- 
tween the ridges of the hills, and, after uniting, form 
little rivulets or brooks •, and many of tbefe meeting 
again, form large rivers. 
Whether Water be originally a fluid ? It is a point 
that has been controverted among philofophers, whe- 
ther fluidity be the natural Hate of Water, or rather the 
effedt of violence. 
Sometimes we find it appear in a fluid form, and 
fometimes in a folid one-, and as the former is the 
more ufual in our warmer climate, we are apt to con- 
clude fluidity to be its proper Hate, and fuppofe the 
other to proceed from the extraneous action of cold. 
But the learned Boerhaave afferts the contrary, and 
maintains, that Water is of the cryftalline kind be- 
caufe wherever a certain degree of fire (heat) is want- 
ing to keep it in fufion, it readily grows into a hard 
glebe, which we call ice. 
Mr. Boyle is much of the fame opinion he obferves, 
that ice is commonly reputed to be Water, brought 
into a preternatural Hate by cold. But with regard to 
the nature of things, and fetting afide our arbitrary 
ideas, it might as juHly be laid, that Water is ice, pre- 
ternaturally thawed by heat. If it be urged, that ice 
left to itfelf will, upon the freezing agents being re- 
moved, return to Water, it may be anfwered. That, 
not to mention the fiYow and ice that lie all the rum- 
mer long on the Alps, and other high mountains, even 
in the torrid zone, we have been a filmed, that in fome 
parts of Siberia the furface of the ground continues 
more months of the year frozen, by the natural tem- 
perature of the climate, than it has been thawed by the 
heat of the fun and a little below the furface of the 
ground, the Water which chances to be lodged in the 
cavities there, continues in a Hate of ice all the year 
round fo that when, in the heat of fummer, the fields 
are covered with Corn, if you dig three or four feet 
deep, you (hall find ice, and a frozen foil. 
Dr. Boerhaave is of opinion, That if Water could be 
had alone and pure, it would have all the requifites 
of an element, and be as fimple as fire ; but there 
has been no expedient hitherto found out for making 
it fuch. 
Rain Water, which feems to be the pureH of all thofe 
we know of, is replete with infinite exhalations of all 
kinds, which it imbibes from the air, fothat though it 
be filtered and diHilled ever fo often, yet there Hill re- 
main feces. 
The pureH of all Waters we can any way arrive at, is 
that diHilled from fnow, gathered in a clear, Hill, 
pinching night, in fome very high place, taking none 
but the outer, or fuperficial part thereof. By a num- 
ber of repeated diftillations thereof, the greateH part 
of the earth, and other feces, may be feparated from it; 
and this is what we muH be content to call pure Water. 
Mr. Boyle indeed relates, that a friend of his by dis- 
tilling a quantity of Water a hummed times, found at 
length, that he had got fix tenths of the quantity in 
earth : whence he concludes, that the whole W ater, 
by the further profecuting the operation, might be 
converted into earth. 
But it fhould be confidered, that as the Water cannot 
be removed or poured into a veffel, without the mix- 
ture of fome duft with it, fo neither can the luting of 
the veffel be diHilled without lofing fomething every 
time ; therefore Dr. Boerhaave rather concludes, That 
the Water thus often diHilled, might acquire new 
earth from the duft floating in the air, and the inftru- 
ments employed in the operation, 
That author affures us, That after he had diHilled 
fome very pure Water by a gentle fire, for the {pace 
of four months, it appeared perfectly pure ; and yet 
WAT 
leaving it to reft in veffeis perfectly clofed, it conceiv- 
ed a certain kind of weedy matter, fomewhat like the 
ftamina of plants, or the little tufts of a mucilage 
and yet it is related that Schotus faw Water in Ker- 
cher’s Mufeum, that had been kept in a veffel her- 
metically fealed upwards of fifty years ; and yet it 
Hill remained clear and pure, and Hood to the fame 
height in the veffel as at the firff, without the leaff 
fign of fediment. 
Dr. Boerhaave adds, That he is convinced nobody 
ever faw a drop of pure Water ; that the utmoft of 
its purity known, only amounts to its being free 
from this and that fort of matter; and that it can ne- 
ver, for inftance, be quite deprived of its fait, fince 
air will always accompany it, and that has always fait. 
Water feems to be diffufed every where, and to be 
prefent in all fpace where there is matter. There is 
not a body in all nature but will yield Water. It is 
alfo afferted, that even fire itfelf is not without Waten 
A fingle grain of the moft fiery fait, which in a mo- 
ment’s time will penetrate through a man’s hand, 
readily imbibes half it's weight of Water, and melts 
even in the drieft air imaginable. Thus fait of tar- 
tar, placed near the hotteff fire, will attract or im- 
bibe Water, and by that means increafe confidersbly 
its weight in a fmall time. So in the drieft fummer’s 
day, a pewter veffel with ice in it, brought up from 
fome cold fubterraneous place, into the hotteft room, 
will immediately be covered with little drops of Wa- 
ter gathered from the contiguous air, and condenfed 
by the coldnefs of the ice. 
Even dry bodies afford a plenteous ftock of Water. 
Dr. Boerhaave fays, oil of vitriol, being expofed a 
long time to a violent fire, to feparate all the Water 
from it as much as poffible, did afterwards, by only 
ftanding a few minutes, con trad frefh Water fo faft, 
as foon to afford it as plenteoufly as at firft. 
And that; hartfhorn that had been kept for forty years, 
and was as hard and dry as any metal, fo that if 
ftruck againft a flint, it would yield fparks of fire ; 
yet this very hartfhorn being put into a glafs veflel, 
and diftilled, afforded him one eighth of its quantity 
of Water. He adds : we have known bones dead 
dried twenty-five years, and thus become almoft as 
hard as iron, which yet, by di (filiation, afforded half 
their weight of Water ; and the hardeft {tones ground 
and diftilled, always difeover a portion thereof. 
Mr. Boyle, by diftillation, found that eels yielded 
fome oil, ipirit, and volatile fait, befides the caput 
mortuum ; yet all thefe were fo difproportionate to 
the Water, that they feemed to have been nothing 
but that coagulated. 
The fame author, from human blood itfelf, as fpiri- 
tuous and elaborate a liquor as it is reputed, did, by 
diftillation, out of leven ounces and a half, draw near 
fix of phlegm, before ever any other of the principles 
began to rife. 
Vipers, though they are efteemed hot in operation, 
and will, in a convenient air, furvive for fome days 
the lolls of their heads and hearts, yet it is furprifing 
how great a (hare of Water they yield by diftillation. 
Some have been of the opinion, that Water was the 
common matter of all bodies. And Thales, with 
fome other philofophers, have held, that all things 
were made of Water; which opinion, probably had 
its rife from the writings of Mofes, where he fpeaks 
of the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the 
Waters. \ 
But Mr. Boyle does not conceive the Water here 
mentioned by Mofes, as the univerfai matter, to be 
our elementary Water ; fince though we fhould fup- 
pofe it to have been an agitated congeries, confifting 
of a great variety of feminal principles, and of other 
corpufcles fit to be fubdued and fafhioned by them, 
it yet might be a body fluid like Water, in cafe the 
corpufcles it was made up of were, by their Creator, 
made fmall enough, and put into fuch an actual mo- 
tion as.might make them all roll, and glide over one 
another. 
However, 
