Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1859-03-10
Mist&ll
WATER.

There are two primal necessities of human
life good water and pure air. Yet, strange
y enough, these two things, which, it might
have been supposed, instinct itself would have
ppSeryed to us intact, are most rarely found
ID savage or civilized life. To conine our
selves to water, we find a striking contrast be-
tween the ideal and the real, between the typi-
cal image of purity and the actual condition
Of our household water If we could analyze
aad test one-half of the fluid which enters in
10 the composition and preparation of our dai-
" meals, We should be as Mortified as John
Perry'S immortal boy was, when he sees the
magnlied Cheese-mite in the microscope, and
hears that, perhaps, he has eaten thousands
Of them in his life A certain little pamphlet
put forth few years ago, had a most terri
lying microscopic frontispiece, indicative of the
various conferv9 and animalculG found in the
supplies of the various water companies of
London 1t made one an anti.teetotaer for
mouths after magnifying every floating grain
o dust into a dusty rotifyer, or twilight mo-
mad, and causing whole forests Of poison-fed
conieTyG to spring up, imaginatively, if but an
nhnIteSlmal fraction of wood had found its
way into the glass 1t was long before the
eject Of that frontispiece wore off and never
10 this day, has a glass Of water been relished
Or Its purity believed in.
The composition of water is unvarying.-
One part of hydrogen and eight of oxygen
stand as the alpha and omega which bound
between them all the changes that may occur.
for whatever else may be found in water is
Vut foreign substance, changing its effect,
Olt not its nature. Whatsoever it may be-
Sa!S sulphur, minerals organic matter, aka
"Vs-though altering the theraputic character
5aa effects of the fluid, just as tea, sugar bran
w or Epson salts may do, leaves the element
unchanged. Waters equally pure and clear
appearance, differ strangely in the nature
@ul ~ character of these adventitiOus additions.
0ue may have so much carbOnic acid held in
tO.GtlOn IN 1t, that when you remove it by
"O'"ug' the lime falls down. Another has
ul.uUu ,.su, SAT-, proved by a white deposit, when
s.sa'eu Win salt Of silver. A third, taken
anu am "eIlS near sewers, near the sea, or near
ny ~! paIrld place, will give dense and ready
,no,.p''ae, showing the presence of organic
os 80 ts., ~ solution; which, though eficacous
g, O1 lot plants, is most undesirable as food
WOOL. t. waters Vary also in comparative
conS' Sn'' according to the substances which they
snr a,n; a3;.. Distilled water, being water without
~! No.! "Uullon, is the lightest of all while stag
oDIa' ~ "aset, iull OF organic matter, of animal
90, a.u ol vegetation, is the heaviest. Sea-
1'sI "e Is heavy in proportion to the salt which
ssItou.i Itou'ainS' Thus, the Dead Sea, being the
tbY 49, IS heavier than the Mediterranean, and
roaI ,olI 'aan the Atlantic. Water from insoluble
as d S1.@ aS III Wales, is nearly as light and pure
TouSS ns'llied water that from chalk, as about
sI IIuou' ro Is heavier, but clear and so on, with
10, "aseFs' according as they have opportuni
e.r,b eb VI not, OF dissolying substances from the
''u' In some Of the rocky districts in Der