624 
we do not quite assent to this proposition. Many 
of the beverages derive the peculiar qualities for 
which they are celebrated, from the salts held in 
solution by the waters employed in their pre- 
paration. 
distinguishing flavour from the liquid used in 
brewing it, which liquid in its natural condition, 
that is to say, in the state in which it is drawn 
by the brewers from its natural reservoir, is said 
to hold in solution small quantities of the sul- 
phates of iron and lime, and of nitrate of potash. 
It has been affirmed, and was once generally be- 
lieved, that the soft water taken from muddy 
ditches and stagnant pools, teeming with both 
animal and vegetable matter, was preferable for 
the purposes of brewing, to the harder waters of 
rivers, wells, or fountains; and many infatuated 
individuals, misled, doubtless, by their blind con- 
fidence in the asseverations of ignorant men who 
hire themselves to brew in families, are persuad- 
ed, even now, that the decomposed matter, mix- 
ed with this water, is actually advantageous to 
the vinous fermentation of the ale. For our own 
part, we believe that both hard water from wells 
and soft water from rivers, provided neither con- 
tains any matters in mechanical mixture which 
will putrefy, will dissolve all the fermentable 
matter of the malt, when the mashing is properly 
done; and this is all that is required. It has 
long been a vulgar error, especially in the pro- 
vinces, that no good porter can be produced any- 
where out of London; and that the reason of this 
is the peculiar property of the Thames water, 
with which alone good porter can be brewed,— 
no other water being capable of yielding that 
beverage in perfection. The cause assigned is 
that the Thames is charged with much fermen- 
table matter, which hastens the action of the 
| brewers’ yeast; but they have overlooked the 
fact that this matter is a strong putrefactive 
ferment. Without having recourse to theory or 
hypothesis to ascertain why the water of the 
Thames should alone be possessed of the proper- 
ty of producing good porter, we must first in- 
quire whether such be really the fact; and this 
question will be answered negatively, for not one 
of the public brewers of porter in London ever 
uses the Thames water in his brewery,—each 
has, on his premises, a well from which he draws 
all the water that enters into the composition of 
his porter. The water of the Thames is certain- 
ly the hest in the world for the use of ships sail- 
ing on long voyages. When pure, it is of a ra- 
ther soft taste, being not greatly charged with 
soluble matters. But it holds in mechanical mix- 
ture substances which impart to it a very singu- 
lar property. After it has been at sea two or 
three days, it commences a very active putrid 
fermentation, during which much carbonic acid 
and some carburetted hydrogen are given out, to- 
gether with a most offensive odour. By the time 
a week has expired, this fermentation begins to 
| subside; all foreign matter contained in the 
WATER. 
The famous Burton ale receives a. 
liquid falls gradually to the bottom of the cask or 
tank, where it becomes a tenacious mass; whilst 
pure water, beautifully limpid and free from 
taint, lies above it. This water will keep more 
than a year; and when passed either through a 
filter or a common dripstone, is the finest and 
purest water that can be obtained for human 
drinking; it is brisk and gratifying to the pa- 
late, which shows that it is well charged with at- 
mospheric air and carbonic acid. We have 
already observed, that soft water is the prefer- 
able for vegetable infusions. That of tea, so 
much used in this country, is often defective; 
and the grocer is unjustly accused of having 
sold a bad article, from the mere fact that 
the water employed is very hard. Moderately 
hard water will make tolerably good tea; but 
in water with excess of hardness, the leaf will 
not infuse, unless an alkali be employed to di- 
minish this hardness by precipitating a por- 
tion of the salt that constitutes it. This is 
the reason why, where very hard water prevails, 
a small quantity of soda is often put into the 
teapot. . 
Generally speaking, calcareous waters moder- 
ately charged with carbonate of lime, are the 
most wholesome for drinking. It is a vulgar 
error to suppose, because a deposit of a hard con- 
crete salt takes place round the inner surface and 
over the bottom of the teakettle, that it is much 
more wholesome to drink water previously boil- 
ed and cooled. Such water is decidedly un- 
wholesome; the boiling temperature deprives it 
of both its atmospheric air and its carbonic acid, 
and the water so treated requires long exposure 
to the atmosphere ere it absorb sufficient of these 
matters to be again drinkable. It is the heat 
which, by depriving the water of its carbonic 
acid, makes the lime precipitate in the form of 
carbonate of lime. This compound is insoluble; 
for everybody knows that neither chalk nor 
marble, nor any kind of limestone, will dissolve 
in water. Yet water, in passing through or 
over beds of chalk or other carbonate of lime, 
generally carries away with it a small portion 
of that substance; and this it is enabled to 
do by means of the free carbonic acid which it 
contains, and which, uniting with the insolu- 
bis carbonate, forms a soluble super-carbonate. 
But the proportion of this salt, as also that of 
other saline substances, is exceedingly variable 
in different kinds and specimens of drinkable 
water. For example 100,000 parts of the water 
of the Seine above Paris contain 11°3 of carbo- 
nate of lime, 0:4 of carbonate of magnesia, 0°5 of 
silica, 3:6 of gypsum, 0°6 of Epsom salt, 1:0 of 
chloride of calcium, 0°8 of chloride of magnesium, 
and traces of nitrates and of organic matter; 
100,000 parts of the water of the Marne con- 
tain 10°5 of carbonate of lime, 0°9 of carbonate 
of magnesia, 0:6 of silica, 3:1 of gypsum, 1°2 of 
Epsom salt, 1°7 of chloride of magnesium, and 
traces of organic matter; 100,000 parts of the 
SSR AT ERAT ATR ST =a PE SETA PEL RG Tet ee NN 
