WATER IN GENERAL 
273. WATER, generally speaking, is a transparent and 
nearly incompressible fluid, the component parts of which 
are two kinds of gag, called hydrogen (45) and oxygen (21). 
It is liquid in the common temperature of our atmo- 
sphere, assumes a solid state under the denomination of 
ice, in a cold temperature (32 of Fahrenheit's thermo- 
meter); and, by heat at 212, is converted into an elastic 
vapour of almost incredible force, called steam. At any 
temperature betwixt these two points, it returns, unal- 
tered, to its liquid state. The weight of water is about 
816 times greater than that of atmospheric air. 
Water abounds in, and may be considered as, a kind 
of general cement to all solid bodies. It performs the 
most important functions both in the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms, and even enters largely into their 
composition. 
A chief part of the nutrition of vegetables is the water 
which they absorb from the earth through the pores of 
their roots. The great quantity so absorbed may readily 
be imagined, when it is stated that the driest and most 
compact kinds of wood, such as even heart of oak, when 
converted into charcoal, lose, during the process, full 
three-fourths of their weight; and that the fluid which 
escapes is nearly pure water. This fluid is found in the 
driest of solid bodies, whatever be their description. A 
piece of hartshorn kept for forty years, and thereby 
become as hard and dry as metal (so that if struck 
against a flint it would give sparks of fire), upon being 
distilled, was found to yield an eighth part of its weight 
of water. 
