Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/1003

 WAT C34<5] WAT

chances to be lodg'd in the Cavities there, continues in a half their weight of Water And the hardeft Stones, ground

ftateoflce all the Year round: So that when in the heat and diltillM do always difcover a Pomon thereof of Summer the Fields are cover'd with Corn, if you dig a Eels, by D.fti Union yielded Mr. Soyk fome 0,1, Spirit

Foot or Two deep, you Jh.ll find Ice, and a frozen Soil, and Volatile Salt befides the Cafut Morttum ■ yet all

No pZ Walvlz all Nature.^-Water, if it could be thefe were fo disproportionate to he Water that they

had alone and pure, Boerbaave argues, would have all the feemed to have been nothing but that coagulated = The

requires of an Clemen,, and be as fimple as Fire ; but fame flrangcly abounds m Vipers, tho efteemed very hot m

'hire is no expedient hitherto difcover'd for making it fiich operation, and will, in a convenient Air fumve tor lomc

TZwater, which Teems the purefl of all thole we S know of, Days the lofs of then Heads and Hearts. Human Blood

h replete with infinite Exhalations of all kinds, which it it felf, as fpnituous and elaborate a L.quor as it is reputed,

imbibes from the Air : So that filter'd and diftill'd a thoufand fo abounds in Water, that out of feven Ounces and an hair,

limes, there flill remains Fsces.-Further, the R*i*-Water the fame Author by Diftillation, drew near fix of Phlegm;

gather'd from the Roofs of Houfes, is a Lixivium of Tyles, before ever any of the other Principles began to rife. See

Witt* nr the like imDre^nated with the Dunas and Faeces Phlegm.

o he Animals, Birds^t" depof.ted thereon ? and the Ex- Whether -Water Ve the cotton Matter of all Bodies, -

halations of numerous other Things.-Add, that all the From Considerations of this kind Thales, and feme other

Rain-J*W gather'd in Cities, mufi at laft be Saturated Ph.lofophers, have been led to hold, 1 hat all Things were

with the Smoke of a thoufand Chimnies, and the variousEf- made of Water : Which Opinion probably, had its rife

fluvia of Numbers of Perfons, &c. Befide that there is from the Writings of Mofes, where he Ipeaks of the Spirit

Fire contained in all Water ; as appears from its Fluidity, of God moving upon the Face of the Waters.— But Mr.

which is owing to Fire alone. See Fire.

As what is in the Air neceffarily mixes it felf with Wa- ter, it hence appears impoflible to have fuch a thing as pure Water. — If you percolate it thro' Sand, or fqueeze it thro' Pumice, or pafs it thro' any other Body of the like kind, you will always have Salt remaining. — Nor can Diftil- lation render it pure ; fince it leaves the Air therein, which abounds in Corpufcles of all forts. See Air.

The pureft of all Waters we can any way arrive at, is that

diftill'd from Snow, gather'd in a clear, flill, pmching Belmont, Centivcglh,

Night, in fome very high Place; taking none but juil the

outer or fuperficial Part thereof. — By a Number of repeared

Diftillations hereof, thegreateft part of the Earth and other

Faces, may be feparated herefrom : And this is what we

mil be contented to call fare Water.

Mt.Boyle, indeed, relates, thataFriend of his.by diflilling a quantity of Water an hundred times, found at length that he had got fix tenths of the firft Quantity in Earth • Whence he concludes, that the

Boyle does not conceive the Water here mention'd by Mofes as the Univerfal Matter, to be our Elementary Water : we need only fuppofe it an agitated Congeries of a great Variety of feminal Principles, and of other Corpufcles fit to be fub- du'd and falhrorr'd by them ; and it may yet be a Body fluid like Water, in cafe the Corpulcles it was made up of, were, by their Creator, made fmall enough, and put into fuch an actual Motion, as might make them roll, and glide eafily over one another. — However, Bafil Valentine, 'Paracelfiis, Van

and others, have maintained the fame Principle, vis. That Water is the Elemental Matter or Sta- men of all things, and fuffices alone for the Production of all the vifible Creation. — Thus, Sir /. Newton, ' All Birds, ' Beafts, and Fifties, Infefts, Trees, and Vegetables, with

1 Tinctures, and Sa-lts; and by Putrefaction return again into
 * their Several Parts, do grow out of Water, and watery

Helmont endeavours to prove this Doctrine from an Expe-
 * watery Subftances.'

hole Water, by further riment ; wherein, burning a quantity of Earth, till all the

Oil was confum'd, and then mixing it up with Water, draw out all the Salt ; and putting this Earth, thus pre- pared, into an earthen Pot, which nothing but Rain-Water could enter; yet a Willow, planted therein, grew up to a considerable height and bulk, without any fenfible Diminu- tion of the Earth : Whence he concluded, that the Water was the only Nutriment of the Vegetable Kind, as Vege- of the Animal. The fame thing is infet'd by

ptofecuting the Operation, might be converted into Earth. See Earth.

But it Ihould be confider'd, that the Water cannot be re- moved, or poured into a Veffel, without the Mixture of fome Dull therewith ; fo, neither can the Luting of the Vef- fel be diftill'd, without lofing fomething every time. Boer- iaavc, therefore, rather concludes, that the Water thus of- ten diftill'd, might acquire flill new Earth from the Dull tables are of

floating in the Air, and the Infttuments employ'd in the O- Mr. Soyle from a parallel Experiment : And the whole is peration countenanc d by Sir J. Newton, who oblerves, that Water,

That Author affures us, that after diftilling fome very pure Handing a few Days in the open Air, yields a Tkaure, Water by a gentle Fire, the fpace of fout Months, it ap- which, like that of Malt by Handing longer, yields a Sedi- pear'd'perfeflly pure ; and yer leaving it to reft in Veffels ment, and a Spirit ; but befote Putrefaction, is fit Jsounfti- exaftlv clofed, it would conceive a flender kind of weedy ment for Animals and Vegetables.

Matter fomewhat like the Stamina of Plants, or the little But Dr. Woodward endeavours to fhew the whole a Miflake: Tufts of a Mucilage : and yet, Schottus faw Water, in Water containing extraneous Corpufcles, fome of thefe, he Kircher's Mufettm, that had been kept in a Veffel -herme- ihews.are the proper Matter of Nutrition ; the Water being flill tically feal'd, upwards of fifty Years, yet ftill remained clear found to afford fo much the lefs Nouriihment, the mote it and pure, and flood to the fame height in the Veffel as at purify'd by Diftillation. fitft, without the leaft Sign of Sediment.

Boerbaave adds, that he is convinced no body ever faw a Drop of pure Water ; that the utmoft of its purity known, only amounts to its being free of this or that fort of Matter : and rhat it can never, for inftance, be quite deprived of Salt ; fince Air will always accompany it, and Air has always Salt. See Air.

Water in all Places and Bodies.— Water feems to be

Thus, a Plant in diftill'd Water will not grow to faft as in Water not diftill'd ; and if the Water be diftill'd three or four times over, the Plant will fcarce grow at all, or receive any Nouriihment from ir. So that Water, as fuch, does not feem the proper Nutriment of Vege- tables ; but only the Vehicle thereof, which contains the nu- tritious Particles, and carries them along with it, thro' all the Parts of the Plant. See Vegetation.

Hence, a Water-Plant, e. g. a Nafiurtium, brought up in a

diffufed every where, and to be prefent in all Space where Veffel of Water, will be found to contain the more Salt and

there is Mattel.— Not a Body in all Nature but will yield Oil, the muddier the Water is : In effea, Water nounfties

Water ■ 'Tis even afferted that Fire it felf is not without the lefs, the more it is purged of its faponaceous Salts ; in

Water. A tingle Grain of the moft fiety Salt, which in a its pure State, it may fuffice to extend or fwell the Parts,

Moment's Time will penetrate thro' a Man's Hand, readily but affords no new Vegetable Matter. See Vegetable, imbibes half its weight of Water, and melts, even in the

drieft Air imaginable. — Thus, Salt of Tartar, placed near the hotteft Fire, will attract or imbibe Water ; and by that increafe considerably its weight in a fmall time

Nutrition, &c.

Helmont, however, carries his Syftem ftill further, and ima- gines, that all Bodies may be re-converted into Water. His Alkaheft, he affirms, adequately refolves Plants, Animals, and

means, u».»c«". wu»»«ii»i .... w~. & .... ... » ....... ....... . a...*........, . — ., x j

So in the drieft Summer's-Day, a pewrer Veffel with Ice Minerals, into one Liquor, or more, according to tneir lo- in it, brought up from fome cold fubterraneous Place into the veral internal Differences of Parts : And the Alkaheft, be- hotteft Room, will immediately be cover'd over with little ing abftraaed from thefe Liquors, m 'he fame Weight and Drops of Water, gather'd from the contiguous Air, and con- with the fame Virtues as when it diffolv'd them ; the Li- dens <1 by the Coldnefs of the Ice. quors may, by frequent Cohobations from Chalk, or fome 'Tis furptizing to confider the plenteous Stock of Water other proper Matter, be totally depriv'd of their feminal which even dry Bodies afford.— Oil of Vitriol, being ex- Endowments, and return at laft to their firft Matter, infipid pofed a long time to a violent Fire, to feparate all the Water, Water. . as much as poflible, from the fame ; will afterwards, by Thus much is confefs'd, that mix'd Bodies do all ™™ e only {landing a few Minutes in the Air, contrafl ftefti Wa- by Fire, into Phlegm or Water, Oil, Spirit, Salt, and Earth 5

tcr To faft, as foon to afford ir as plenteoufly as at firft. each of which is found to contain Water.

Hartfhorn, kept forty Years, and turn'd as hard and dry as Spirits, for inftance, cannot be better reprefented than by

any Metal ; fo, that if ftruck againft a Flint, it will yield Spirit of Wine, which of all others feems freeft from Water

Sparks of Fire ; yer, being put into a glafs Veffel, and di- yet, Helmont affirms, it may be fo united with Water, as t

ffill'd, will afford one eigthth of its Quantity of Water, become Water it felf. He adds, that 'tis materially Water

Bones dead and dried twenty five Years, and rhus become only under a fulphurous Difguife.— According to him almoft as hard as Iron ; yet, by Diftillation, have afforded

to

making