Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1849-10-25
Tn. sa,ur. and Relation o. water.

| eHtS OF TIE various paris vi tiie y SlcID.--1
To 50 great an extent does this 60, that in
a thousand parts of human blood, nearly
eight hundred are pure water. The dis
ttibution of organized beings all over the
world is to a great extern regulated BY its
abundance or scarcity. 1t seems as il The
properties Of this substance mark out the
plan of animated nature. From man at
| the head of all, to the meanest vegetable
that can grow on bare rock, through all
the various orders and tribes, this ingredi-
ent is ever required. Insipid and inodor-
Gus in itself, it partakes Of the peculiari-
ties ofall other bodies assumes with read
mess the sweetness OF sugar, and the acid
lily of vinegar. Distilled with flowers, or
the aromatic parts Of plants, it contracts
| from them their fragrance, and with equal
facility becomes the vehicle of odors the
| most offensive TO our senses.
We talk about the use of water, and i'm
| agine that nature furnishes us perennial
supply. The common philosophy OF the
people is doubtless advanced so far as to
admit that, nn an unknown manner, this
substance is created in the clouds, de-
scends as rain for the use of animals and
plants; but whence 1t came or where it
goes never enters into their consideration. I
Men constantly forget that in this world
nothing is ever annihilat.d; an atom once
created can by nc process be destroyed!
The liquid that we drink to-day, has been
drunk thousand times before ;the clouds
that obscure the sky have obscured it asain
and again; and if The sorrows of mankind
are as many as the philanthropist may
we'll fear, he might suspect a great part Of
the ocean is, perhaps, made up OF tears
that have fallen from the human family
In the air their signs die away, and in the
ocean their tears are all lost. This using
over and over again is striking charac-
teristic of the ways of nature; the bea,lti-
full and the vile--the great and the small
are all mingled together, the tears that
you shedi the depths of grief to-day, may
be squirted tomorrow through hose-pipe
TO clean the dirt Of the streets, or whistled
away through the squeak of a locomotive,
10 scare some dilatory COW off the track.
So much for the sorrows Of man.
! What then becomes of the immense
quantities Of water, which thus entering
as constituent of the bodies Of animals,
gives 10 their various parts that fexibility
which enables them 10 execnte movements,
or combining with vegetable structure, fits.
| them for carrying on their vital process?
| After the course Of a few years, all exist
ing animals and vegetables entirely pass
| away, their solid constituents disiutegrate
and take on ether conditions, and the wa
ter, LOST perhaps for time inthe ground,
at last escapes i.l7tte form Of vur6r "irrt0
the air. In that great and invisible recep-
tacle, all traces Of IFS ancient relations dis
appear; il mirgles with other vapors that
are raised form the sea by the sun. From
the bodies OF living animals and plants i'm
mense quantities are hourly finding their
way into the reservoir.
In crowded city, from the skin and by
! The breath Of its numerous inhabitants.
clouds Of vapor are continually escaping;
we see this visihly gcing on in The cold
weather of winter, and though invisible,
the process is equally active in summer
the 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 meadows, and wherever yese-
tables are found, water is contin Tally evap-
Grating, and that to an extent Far surpaSs-
ing what we might at first be led 10 sup
pose. In single day, sunIlower of
! i IL l., Il
other parts nearly 20 ounces weight.
How enormous, then, must be the guam
lily which escapes from The surface OF
great continent Yet all this is thrown
into the air, and there il minsles with 9TH
err portions, some of which are coming
from living races, and some derived from
the surface OF the ground, and some from
! the remote regions Of the sea. 1t seems
as if nature had taken sure means that here
all identity should be lost. The winds,
proverbialIy incon<tant, blow at one time
! from Africa, at another from Asia.
In the republic ofthc universe there is
a stern equality. The breath Of the king
ttermingles with the breath Of the bcggar;
and the same quiet atmosphere receives
the exllalations Of the American, the Eu-
ropean, the ASiatic and the African. The
PARTICLES that have risen from the dead IN
termingle with those from the living and
if this were not enough, the winds and tie
tempests obli,erate every distinction, and
dash in one common confusion these relies
OF every part Of the globe.
a man of average size requires half
Ton weight OF water year when he has
reached The meridian Of life, he has con-
sumed nearly three hundred times his
own weight o! this liquid. These are
| statements which may seem to those who
hear them for the first time, very wonder
full, and as they are easily verified; might
lead YOU to doubt whether the existing
order Of nature, as dependent on the wa
ters OF the sea, could for any length Of
time be kept under such a heavy con-
sumption.
The human family consists probably Of
a thousand millions Of individuals; it
would be very moderate estimate to sup
pose, that the yarions animals, great and
| small, taken together, consumes five times
as much water as we DO, and the vegeta-
bic world two hundred times as much as
all the animal races. Under such an i'm