Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1871-04-25
Misttllanp.
THE WATER I'VE DRINK.
Lecture by Prof. Chandler, before th'
American Institute

Lecture by Prof Chandler before the
American Institute.
Water j. the sole product ol the com.
bustion of hydrogen. The HindooS and
The Egyptians considered water the ele-
mert from whirh all bodies are formed.
Among the Greeks, six hundred years ne
fore Christ. the opinion was defended
that water Was the iirsl and frontal Gle.
ment in all matter Aristotle regarded il
Is one OF the four primal elements, and
this idea prevailed llr more than thous-
and wears, and the four elemcntS--tirc,
air, earth and water--wcrc supposed 10
lc materials from which all matter Mas
formed Il VAS supposed. however.
That these four elements were. 10 Ger
tain extent. mutually convertible, and
there were certain lactS that made this
appear very possible at that date. Heat
coul erled water into steam. which, 10
the aucieut> WAS equivalent L" air; and
the ir, qu,ul evaporation ol water from
gla>, vessels .ccmcd l" convert the
water into cnth su the four cIemenIs
were mutually convertible.
rhl> idea nl the cuu,,r>ion Of water
into earth prevailed until about 100, just
uuc hundred wears ago. when I.avoi>icr.
a French chemist, applied the balance la
,h, solution "t the problem It had.
however. been kno ,u ihl, when water
l.ld hc.u placed ia - rotor aud r,ap rat.
eel. thclc remained brhiui maIlqunri
a ui e.,rthv utI,r a The U.tcr we're
rpucl h..E aul distilled g., : cnnl time
thc quantity ui rJUh, matter nctct-cd (;
50 thc lhnd time, until the III tillatinn vas
complete Lavoi~icr provided himself
with m ale mbic which WAS hcrmctrically
sealed. and into This he introduced three
pounds of water tie repeated the dis
tillation Tor long time aud found at the
end of the operation he had twenty drams
OF mineral water but he found that the
alembic and water had the same weight
rs before. On opening the apparatus he
found that he had not lost any water, but
the alsmbic had lost twenty dramS.--
Seheele. a Swedish chemist. aualyzed the
earthy matter left. and proved it 10 be
the same material as glass. On repeat
Ing the experiment of cooperating water
from silver vessel. no eurthy matter
was produced so ii was clearly proved
that the earthly matter came from the YES
sci and not from the water
The application of the balance to the
chemical investigation in the hands OF
Lavoisier, laid the foundation for our
pieSen, system. not simply of chemistry,
but of the sciences based OH it, Caven-
dish proved water to be composed OF oxy
gen and hydrogen.
Water is the most remarkable of all
compounds. II covers three fourths of
the earth's surface. in the form OF oceans,
lakes, rivers, snow and ice As vapor, it
is ever present in the atmosphere. 1t oc-
ours in animals. the blood containing sew
enty.nine per cent. and the muscles.
seyeniy.fiye per cent. In fact, human
body is three fonrthS, water. Plants con
tain from twenty TO eighty or ninety per
cent None of the solid rocks are TREE
from it. and some of them---as gy ypsum-
contain twenty per cent. At PIP degrees
Fab. water boils. passing of in form oil
yapot, but it evaporates at all tcmperu-
lures. Water has great capacity for
heat. A cubic mile of water, in cooling
one degree warns 3,076 cubic miles of
atmospheric air TO an equal extent, and a
cubic yard OF ice, in melting, cools 1000
Cubic yards OF atmospheric air from 90 TO
52 degrees Fahrenheit We have water
playing The part of an acid, in combina.
ton with a strong base. II is in the con.
dition of acid tha: it attacks quicklime
and slakes il. We have the wafer again
occurring in the form OF watery crystal
lization, in solid substances which assume
a crystalline form when separating from
water, as alumni. gypsum, and many
other materials. We have it again rs u
solvent, in which case it exerts Il weak
affinity for substances involved. The
water dissolves not only waters. but gas
es; in fact II is universal solvent