Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-06-21
The Chemistry Of Water.

1nthis fluid, so clear, so bright, so CRATE
/ full to the system, SO healthfll to the
| temperate, so necessary to alI-the de
| light OF Grecian sOng-the charm of the
Eastern paradise-Of this fluid, Landed
with justice, by the physiologist-chem-
istry tells us that three-fourths of oul
apparently solid bodies consist, and that
it forms nearly as large a 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 name of HYDROGEN IVA
! ter-former) has been given. Kindle this
latter gas in the air, and it burns with a
pale fame. Hold a cold bell-glass over
! the fame, and its under surface will be-
come beSeWed with moisture. and drops
of water viii trickle down its sides. Col
| lect this water and submit it toa current
of electricity; the liquid will disappear
and in its stead the two gases, oxygen
and hydrogen, Will remain. These eX-
periments prove-;Jirst, 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
form eight-ninths by weight of a LIQUID
in which 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-
tons.
The chemical study of this water in
its relations to animal and vegetable life
presents new points of interest. The
most important of its chemical proper
ties are so familiar to US that we rarely
think of them, and do not sufficiently
Drize them. Pure water has neither
taste, nor smell, nor pungency. 1t is
neither sour like vinegar, nor sweet like
sugar, nor alkaline like soda. Itirritates
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 infammation-lullin
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
it were, 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 inflammatory
food, or drink oyer-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
superfuous heat; and bathing with per-
spiration both skin and lungs, restrains
within due bounds the growing inham-
nation.
But more 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
penetrative like the water itself The
sea salt contains within its bosom many
substances SO dissolved; the fluids that
circulate through our veins are chiefly
water.