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Show Wa ee Wa — 6. Water is infipid, and without Smell. The Reafon is, becaufe its flexible Partsflip gently overthe Tongue, and are not fharp enough to prick the Nerves andaffect the Tafte: But this is to be underftood of pure Water, void of all Kind ofSale; fuchas diftill’d Wateris, and, next, that of Rain; for the moft wholefome fo that it only wets their Surface, without dilating them ; hangs on the Outfide of them becaufe they are rough, and becaufe the re tremities of the Pores are opena little Way. But fuch Bodies, when they are wet, are foon dry’d inthe Air, becaufe the Motion of the airy Particles carries off the foft and {mooth ones of the Water. Fountain Water commonly derives a Saltnefs It is obfervable, that if Bodies rubb’d over from the Earth; tho’in this Place is not meant with Oil or Fat, be dipp’d in Water, they medicinal. Fountain Waters, the Tafte of get very little Wet, becaufe the Roughnefs which is more acute, but fuch Water as is of their Surface, whereon the Water thould ufually drank. hang, is fmoothed, and made even by the And that it is without Smell: The purer Fat, and the Mouthsofthe Poresareclofed any Water is, the lef Smell it has; for the up, fo that there is nothing left for the watry Reafon, why the Particles don’t prick the Particles to hold by, and therefore they muft ‘Tongue, is the Reafon whythey don’t affect the Smell: ‘The Flexibility and Smoothnefs of needsflide off. Dr. Cheyne obferves, that the Quantity of Water is fach, that they cannot pierce the Water on this Side our Globe does daily de-~ olfactory Nerves: Some Fountain Water has creafe, fome Part thereof being every Day indeed fome Smell, but then ir is a Sign that turned into animal, metalline, mineral, and it is not pure. 4. Water is fabject to putrify, according as vegetable Subftances, which are not eafily the Place is where it is kept. “Water will grow diffolv’d again into their component Parts; thick and. ftinking by Heat and, Reft, as we for if you feparate a few Particles of any find it does in Ponds and Marfhes, and in Fluid, and faften thern to a folid Body, or clofe Veffels: But here it ought to be remem- keep them. afunder one from another, then ber'd, that this is what was {poken of before, they are no more fluid; for a confiderable as fuch /Vateras is not pure; for unmix’d Water Numberof fuch Particles are required to procannot putrify. This is prov’d, firft, by diftill’d duce Fluidity. Moft Liquors are form’d by the Cohefion Water, which may be kept very long without of Particles of different Figures, Magnitudes, Putrifaction. Secondly, in Rain Water, which is caught Gravities, and attractive Powers, {wimming in clean Veffels, and prefently ftopp’d up clofe in pure Water, or an aqueous Fluid, which and buried, under-ground, which is kept many feems to be the common Bafis of all. And Years, in Countries where they want Foun- the only Reafon why there are fo manySorts tains: ‘This fhews that the Caufé of Putrefac- tion is not in the /Vater itfelf, but in other Things that are mingled with it; becaufe pure /Vater, fuch as is diftill’d, or comes from the Clouds, keeps fweet for a great while; but then thofe Veffels in which fuch Wateris kept, mutt be fo well ftopp'd, that the leaft Fly may of Water differing from one anotherby different Properties, is, that the Corpufcles ofSalts and Minerals, with which that Element is impregnated, are equally various. Wine is only Water impregnated with Par- ticles of Grapes, and Beer is Water impregnated with Particles of Barley, &c. All Spirits fem not get into them, and they muft be madeof to be Water faturated with faline and fulphufuch Stuas will not corrupt ; ftich as Glafs or reous Particles. And all Liquors are more or lefs fluid, acClay. But as for ftanding Water in Ponds or Martfhes, that is corrupted two Ways: 1. By the Nature of the Soil, which often abounds with noifome Sulphur, whereby the Water is impregnated, and comes to {mcll in warm Weather, as it does at Am/terdam, not only in the Canals, but where-ever the Ground is open’d for the Foundations of cording to the greater or finaller Cohefion of the Particles, which {wim in the aqueous Fluid ; and there is hardly any Fluid without this Co- Soil, and not to the Water. 2. By the nafty Things that are thrown into it, or Bodies of Infeéts which die in it ; as. alfo by the Eggs of Flies, which are dropp’d about where-ever they go, and breed Worms. Water is corrupted in wooden Veffels, efpecially at Sea, by the fulphureous Parts of the Wood, and by uncleanly Things; as Flies, Eggs, &c,: Water penetrates the Pores of thofe Bodies, whofe Pores are wide enough to receive its aétive Principles fluid, fo that they are capa- Houfes. ‘This Putrefaction is owing to the hefion of Particles, not even pure Mater it felf, as will appear from the Bubbles, which will fometimes ftand on the Surface of it, 48 well as on that ofSpirits and other Liquors. Water contributes much to the Growth © Bodies, in that it both renders and keeps the ble of being convey’d by Circulation into the Pores. The learned Dr. Halley has demonftrated, that if an Atom of Water be expanded into 4 Shell or Bubble, whofe Diameterfhall be ten times as great as before, fuch an Atom Wo i be fuperficiaily lighter than the Air, and wi rife fo long as that Flatus, or warm Spits which at firft feparated or raifedit from the it to Mafs of Water, fhall continue to diftend Particles: Thus it enters the Pores of Sugar the fame Degree ; but whenthat Warmth ae andSalts, fo. as to feparate and quite diffolve their Particles; but it’ cannot get into the at fpecifically lighter, thefe Vapours W ill ftop clines, and the Air grows cooler, and aE descen” Pores of Stones, or but a very little Way a certain Region ofthe Air, orelie Therefore, Wa Therefore, if it fhould be fuppos’d that the whole Earth were covered with Water, and that the Sun. fhould make his diurnal Conrfe round it, as now he does, he is of Opinion, that the Air would be impregnated witha certain Quantity of aqueous Vapours, which it would retain in it, like Salts diffolv’d in Wa- WA maintains, that Wateris of the cryftalline kind ; becaufe where-ever a certain Degree of Fire (Heat) is wanting to keepit in Fufion, it rea~ pa grows into a hard Glebe, which we call ce. Mr. Boyle is much of the fame Opinion. Heobferves, that Ice is commonly reputed to ter, and that the Sun in the Day-time warm- be Water, brought into apreternatural State ing the Air, that Part of the Atmofphere by Cold. But with Regard to the Nature of would fuftain a greater Proportion of Va- Things, andfetting afide our arbitrary Ideas, pours (as warm /Vater will hold more Salt in it diffolv’d than Cold), which by the Abfence of the Vapours at Night would be difcharg’d into Dews. it might as juftly be faid, that Wateris Ice, preternaturally thaw’d by Heat. Ifit be urg’d, that Ice left to itfelf will, upon the not be any Diverfity of Weather, other than periodically every Year alike; the Mixture of all terreftrial, faline, and heterogencous Vapours here being excluded, which he judges to be, when varioufly compounded and driven by Winds, which are the Caufes of thefé various Seafons and Changes of Weather which we nowfind, But inftead of fuppofing an Earth to be cover'd all over with Water, you fuppofe the Sea inter{pers’d about wide and {pacious Tracks the Snow and Ice that lie all the Summer long on the 4/ps, and other high Mountains even in the Zorrid Zone, we have been affur'd, that in fome Parts of Siberia the Surface of the Ground continues more Months of the Year frozen, by the natural Temperature of the freezing Agents being remov’d, return to W/aAnd in this Cafe he concludes, there could ter, it may be anfwer'd, That not to mention of Land, and alfo divided by high Ridges of Climate, than it has been thaw’d by the Heat of the Sun; and little below the Surface of the Ground, the Water which chances to be lodg’din the Cavities there, continues in a State of Ice all the Year round; fo that when in the Heat of Summer the Fields are cover'd with Corn, if you dig three or four Feet deep, you fhall find Ice, anda frozenSoil. Mountains, fuch as the Alps, the Apennine, and the Pyrenean in Europe; the Caucafus, the Dr, Boerhaave is of Opinion, Thatif Water Imaus, and the Zaurus in Afia; the Mount Atlas, and the Mountains of the Moon in could be had alone and pure, it would have Africa; the Aules and Apalatean Mountains all the Requifites of an Element, and be as in America, each of which furpaffes the ufual fimple as Fire ; but there has been no Expe-~ Height to which the aqueous Vapours do of dient hitherto found out for making it fuch. Rain Water, which feems to be the pureft themfelves afcend, and on the Tops of which of all thofe we knowof, is replete with infinite the Air is fo cold and rarefied, asto retain but Exhalations of all Kinds, which it imbibes a fmall Part of thefe Wapours, which are from the Air; fo that thoughit be filtred brought thither by the Winds. and diftil’d ever fo often, yet there ftill reThen the Vapours thus rais’d from the Sea, and carried by the Winds over the low Lands mains Faces. As for that Rain Water that is gather’d from to thofe Ridges of Mountains, are there compel’d by the Steams of the Air, to mount the Roofs of Houfes, it isa Lixiviumof Tiles, Slate, or the like, impregnated with the Dungs with it up to their Tops, where the Water prefently precipitates, gleeting down by the and Fwces of Animals, Birds, &c¢. depofited thereon, and the Exhalations of numerous Crannies of the Stones ; and part of the Vapours entring into the Caverns of the Hills, other Things. As for that Rain Water that is collected in the Water thereof gathers, as in an Alembick, faturated with the Smoak of in the Bafons of Stones; and thefe being once Cities, it muft be and the various Hfluvia full, the Overplus of the Water runs down at a thoufand Chimnies, &. Befides. that, the loweft Place of the Bafon, and breaking of Numbers of Perfons, in all Water, as appears contain’d Fire is there fingle forms Hills, the of Sides the out by which is owing to Fire Springs; many of which run down by the from its Fluidity, Vallies or Guts between the Ridges of the alone. As what is in the Air neceffarily mixes itfelf Hills, and after uniting, form little Rivulets to or Brooks; and many of thefe meeting again, with Water, it hence appears impoffible have fuch a thing as pure Water. If it be form large Rivers. Sand, or {queezed thro’ PuWhether Water be originally a Fluid ? It percolated thro’ Body of the isa Point that has been controverted among mice, or pafs’d thro’ any other remainPhilofophers, whether Fluidity be the natu- like Kind, there will always be Salt renderit pure ; fince ral State of Water, or rather the Effect of ine: Nor canDiftillation which abounds in it leaves the Air therein, Violence. Sometimes we find it appear in a fluid Form, Corpufcles ofall Sorts.Waters we can any way The pareft of all and fometimes in a folid one ; and as the fordiftill’d from Snow, gather'd mer isthe more ufual in our warmer Climate, arrive at, is that pinching Night, in fome very we are apt to conclude Fluidity to beits proper in a clear, ftill, high Place, taking none but the outer or fuState, and fuppofe the other to proceed from reBut the perficial Part thereof. By a Number of the extraneous Aétion of Cold. thereof, the greateft me, learned Boerbaave afferts the contrary, and peated Diftillations of |