Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1849-11-14
NATURE AND RELATIONS OF
WATER.

contains water as one of the leading con.
s,iuents of The various parts of its sys-
tenn. To so great an extent does this
go, that, in a thousand parts of human
blood, nearly eight handred are water.
The distribution of organized beings all
ovei the world, is 10 a great extent, reg
ulated by its abundance or scarcity. 1t
seems as if the properties of this SUBJ
stance mark out the plan of animated
nature. From man, at the head oP all
to The meanest vegetable that can grow
on bare rock, through all the various
orders and tribes, this ingredien, is alb.
solutely required. Inspid and inodo.
rous in itself, it takes on the pecuIiari>
Ties of all other bodies; assumes with
readiness the sweetness of sugar, and
the acidily Of vinegar. Distilled with
flowers, or the aromatic parts Of plants,
it contracts from them their fragrance;
and with equal facility becomes tic We
hicle of odors the most offensive 10 our
sense.
We talk about the use Of water, and
imagine that nature furnishes US pa.
rennial supply. The common philoso>
ply of the people, is doubtless, advanced
so far as 10 admit that, in an unknown
manner, this substance is creaed in the
clouds, descends as rain for the use of
animals and plants but whence it came,
or where it goes, never enters into their
consideration.
Men constantly forget that in this
world, nothing is even annihilated; an
atom, once created, can by no process
be destroyed! The liquid that we drink
to-day has been drunk thousand times
before; the clouds that obscure the sky
have obscured 1t again and again and
and if the sorrows Of mankind ale as
many as the. phianlhropist may well
fear, he might suspect great part of
the ocean is. perhaps, made up of tears
that have fallen from the human family,
in the air their sighs die away, and in
the ocean their tears are all lost. This
Characteristic of the: ways Of nature; the
beautiful and the vilc-the great and the
small-are all mingled together the
tears that you shed in the depths Of grief
to-day, may be squirted Tomorrow
through hose-pipe 10 clean the dirt Of
the tieets, or whs,led away through
the squeak of locomotive, to scare
some diIatory COW off the track. So
much for the sorrows of man.
What then becomes of the immense
quantities of water, which; thus entering
as a constituent of the bodies Of animals,
gives 10 their various parts that hexibili-
ty which enables them 10 execute move
ments or combining with vegetable
structure fits them for carrying on their
vital processes? After the course of a
few years, all existing animals and vege.
tables entirely pass away; their solid
constituents disinlegrale and take on
other conditions, and the waters lost
perhaps, for a time in the ground, or else
escapes in the form of vapor into the air.
In that great and invisible receptacle,
all traces of its ancient relations disap-
pears; it mingles with other vapors that
are raised from the sea by tho sun. From
the bodies OF living animals and plants,
immense quantities are hour y finding
their way into the reservoir.
In crowded city, from the skin and
by the breath Of its numerous inhabi.
tanls, clouds of vapor are continually
escaping-we see this visibly going on
in the cold weather of winter, aud though
invisible, the process is equally active
in SUMMERTIME escape arising from the
drink we take. or from all those various
portions of the system that are dying
each moment, for the life of individual
being is made up Of the successive death
of all its constituent particles. In the
same manner, from the forests and mea,
dows, and wherever vegetables are found
water is continually evapora;ing, and
that 10 an extent far surprising what we
might at first be led TO suppose. In a
single day, sun flower Of moderate
size, throws from its leaves, and other
parts nearly 20 ounces weight.
How enormous, then must be the
quantity which escapes from the surface
of great continent! Yet all this is
thrown into the air; and there it min
giles with other portions, some of which
are coming from living faces, and some
derived from the surface of the ground,
and some from the remote regions of the
sea. II seems as il nature had taken
sure means that here all traces of iden
ti,y should be lost. The winds. prover>
bially inconstant, blow at one time from
the coast of Europe, at another from
Africa, at another from Asia.
In the republic Of The universe there
is a steam equally, the breath Of the
king inlermingles with the breath of the
beggar, and the same quiet atmosphere
receives the exhalations Of the Ameri.
can, the European, the Asiatic, the AT.
rican: the particles that have risen from