The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-12-12
The ChemistrE of Nater.

In nthis fluid, so clear, so bright, so CRATE
full to the system, so healthfUl to the
temperate, so necessary to all-the de-
light of Grecian song-the charm of the
Eastern paradise-of this fluid, lauded,
with justice, by the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
istry tells us that three-fOurths of our
apparently solid bodies consist, and that
.it forms nearly as large q proportion of
all living vegetables during the height
and vigor Of their growth. In this fluid,
looked upon as elementary till nearly
our own times, modem research has
taught US to see the result of a subtle
union between the oxygen and another
gas, to which the nance Of hydrogen IVA
ter-fOrmer) has been given. kindle this
latter gas in the air, and it burns with a
pale fame. Hold cold bell-glass over
the fame, and its under surface will be-
come bedewed with moisture, and drops
of water will trickle down its sides. Col
lect this water and submit it to- current
of electricity the liquid will disappear
and in its stead the two gases, oxygen
and hydrogen, will remain. These eX-
periments prOve-trst, that while burn
ing in the air, the hydrogen unites with
the oxygen of the atmosphere, and forms
water; and second, that the water thus
formed consists of these two gaseous
constituents only, compressed and bound
together by. some incOmprehensible con-
nectiOn which it makes us no wiser to
call chemical combination.
1t is, indeed, incomprehensible how
water, the enemy of fire, should itself
consist Of two gases, the one Of which
burns most readily, while the other is
the great natural supporter of living fire.
And tits equally strange that oxygen,
so Indispensable to animal life, should
fornseight-ninths by weight of a LIQUID
in winch few terrestrial animals can live
for more than two or three seconds of
time. By no known theory of physical
or mechanical union can we satisfactorily
explain how properties so new should be
the result Of such chemical cOmbina-
tions.
The chemical study of this water in
its relations to animal and vegetable life
presents new points of interest. The
Ipost important of its chemical proper
Ges are so familiar to US that we rarely
think Of them, and do not sufficiently
prize them. Pure water has neither
taste, nor smell, nor pungency. 1t is
neither sour like vinegar, nor sweet like
sugar, nor alkaline like soda. ItiTritates
no nerve of sensation, even the most
delicate; nor is the tenderest part of the
animal frame disturbed by contact with
this universal fluid. 1t is thus fitted to
penetrate unfelt, into the subtlest tissues,
and without causing the slightest jar to
flow along the finest, most hair-like YES
sells. 1t soothes and assuages wherever
it comes, lessening misunderstanding
pain-diluting unhealthy fluids within
the bOdy-and washing morbid humOrs
and waste materials from the siCkly and
changing frame.
Again, as a cooling agent, water is
equally invaluable. In adry and thirsty
land, we feel and, acknowledge the pleas
ure of bathing our heated bodies in the
sea or the running stream. But we are
less sensible how it watches over US, as
itwere, every passing moment, dispelling
each rising heat, and removing from the
body every excess of warmth which
might disturb the equable workings of
its many parts. Do we eat inhammatOry
food, or drink Over-stimulating fluids,
the excess of bodily warmth produced
converts a portion of water into VapOr,
and the lungs throw it off into the air
Do we, by hard labor, or other unusual
exertioh, exalt the temperature of the
body, the same water again takes up the
heat; and bathing with per-
spiratiOn both skin and lungs, restrains !
within due bounds the growing inham-
nation.
Butmore widely useful still in relation
to vegetable and animal life is the pro-
perty which water possesses of dissOlving |
and rendering fluid a host of usually !
solid bodies. Put sugar or salt into wa
ter, it disappears and becomes fluid and |
penetTative like the water itself The |
sea salt contains within its bosom many |
SO. dissolved; the fluids that |
circulate through our veins are chiefly
water.