amidst the agonies of thirst. And it is said of those unhappy victims of a barbarous punishment, in Persia, (who being immured in masonry, as to every part of their body but the head, are left to perish in that state,) that they terminate their last hours, perhaps days, in incessant cries for water.

The necessity of this element for our support may be antecedently inferred, on philosophical principles, from the examination of the physical composition of any animal body; of which, in by far the greater number of instances, more than three-fourths of the whole weight are due to the presence of water. This water of composition may be easily separated by the application of a moderate degree of heat, or even by spontaneous evaporation at a common temperature, without any further decomposition of the body; the muscles and skin consequently shrinking to such an extent, so as to give the whole frame the appearance of a skeleton, enveloped, as it were, in parchment. Such a result is occasionally observable in human bodies which have been deposited in dry cemeteries; and is by no means uncommon in the case of small animals, as rats, for instance, which having been accidentally wedged in between a wall and a wainscot, are subsequently found in the state above described.

An experiment of a very simple character in itself, and very easily made, will serve to ascertain, not only the proportional quantity of water of composition contained in some forms of animal matter, but also the properties communicated by the presence of that element thus combined. Every one has noticed the opaline or milky appearance and the remarkable elasticity of cartilage, or gristle, as it is more commonly called: which characters depend on the water contained in it; for if a piece of gristle, the weight of which has been previously ascertained, be exposed to the air of a warm room, it will at the end of a few hours have lost a portion of its weight; and will have become nearly transparent, and entirely inelastic and if, in this state, it be immersed in water, it will gradually recover its original weight, and also its elasticity and opaline appearance. If, instead of gristle, a piece of boiled white of egg be employed, the same results will be observable; for, together with loss of weight and elasticity, it will become brittle, and nearly as transparent as pure amber: and on the other hand, by subsequent immersion in water, its original properties will be soon restored. By experiments nearly as simple as those above-mentioned it may be demonstrated, that all the liquid and solid parts of an animal, with some few exceptions, contain or consist of more than threefourths of their weight of water: the importance of which element in the mere composition of our body is hence directly evident.

But if we would have a familiar illustration of its importance in the daily and hourly occurrences of life, let us in imagination accompany an individual of moderate rank and condition in society,

from the time of his rising in the morning till the hour of sleep at night, in order to observe the utility of water in administering either directly or indirectly to his various wants and habits. How great is the comfort, to say nothing of the salubrity of the practice, which results to him from the application of water to the surface of the body, by means either of the bath or any simpler process! and, again, the change in the linen in which he is partially clothed is rendered equally comfortable and salutary, in consequence of its having been previously submitted to the process of washing. The infusion of coffee or of tea, which is probably an essential part of his earliest meal, could not have been prepared without water: neither could the flour of which his bread consists, have been kneaded; nor the food of his subsequent meal, the broths and most of the vegetables at least, have been rendered digestible, without the aid of the same fluid; and with respect to his common beverage, whether milk, or any form of fermented liquor, water still constitutes the main bulk of that beverage.

So far the use of water is directly and immediately necessary to his comfort and subsistence: but its indirect and remote necessity is equally observable in all that surrounds him. There is scarcely an article of his apparel, in some part of the preparation of which water has not been necessarily employed; in the tanning of the leather of his shoes; in the dressing of the flax of which his linen is made; in the dyeing of the wool of his coat, or of the materials of his hat. Without water the china or earthen cups, out of which he drinks, could not have been turned on the lathe; nor the bricks, of which his house is constructed, nor the mortar by which they are cemented, have been formed. The ink with which he writes, and the paper which receives it, could not have been made without the use of water. The knife with which he divides his solid food, and the spoon with which he conveys it when in a liquid form to his mouth, could not have been, or at least have not prohably been formed, without the application of water during some part of the process of making them.

By water the medical principles of various vegetable and mineral substances are extracted, and rendered potable; which could not be introduced into the animal system in a solid state: and this element itself becomes occasionally a most powerful medicinal instrument by its external application, in every one of its forms; whether as a liquid, under the name of the cold or warm bath; or in the form of ice, in restraining internal inflammation and hemorrhage; or in the state of steam, as in the application of the vapour bath.

6*

SECTION V.

Baths.

THE custom of bathing, whether in a medium of a high or of a low temperature, appears to be in a great measure derived from the gratification of a natural feeling: for we find it prevalent in every country and in every stage of society, not only with reference to its medicinal effects, but as a mere luxury. Thus at every season of the year, when the sky is serene at least, the inhabitants of hot climates plunge into their native streams for the sake of the refreshment imparted to the surface of their bodies; and the same refreshment is equally sought by the natives of colder climates during the heat of their short summer: in each of which instances the pleasurable sensation is the principal motive for the practice. But on some occasions a more permanent good is sought; and the hope of immediate pleasure is so far from being the motive that a sensation very nearly allied to pain, and in many instances less tolerable than pain itself, is encountered in the shock of the cold bath, with a view to the preservation or restoration of health. It may be said perhaps that the glow of warmth which usually succeeds this shock is in itself a pleasure; as indeed it is: but it may be presumed that very few individuals experience any pleasure from the shock itself, or would consent to encounter it but for its pleasurable and beneficial consequences.

For the enjoyment of the cold bath nature affords the immediate resource of springs and rivers, in almost every part of the world; but the enjoyment of the warm bath is in general not easily attainable; warm springs being comparatively of rare occurrence: the pleasure of the warm bath however is so congenial to man's feelings, that it is sought for by savages as well as by the inhabitants of the most luxurious cities; and is as acceptable in tropical as in cold climates.

It is at all times interesting to contemplate the expedients which human ingenuity discovers for the accomplishment of its purposes: but such a contemplation is more particularly interesting when it developes the revival of a principle, the knowledge of which had been buried during many centuries of intervening ignorance; and thus justifies the reflection of moral wisdom:

"Multa renascentur, quæ jam cecidere."

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

In a most amusing and instructive account of Pompeii, which forms one of the volumes published under the name of the Library

of Entertaining Knowledge, is a dissertation on the Baths of the Ancients; which will amply repay, by the information it conveys, the time occupied in its perusal. In that dissertation is contained a description of the remains of some public baths, discovered in the excavations of Pompeii: and with reference to the disposition of the furnace of the baths, a fact is stated, which is peculiarly applicable to our present purpose.

It is evident that, in consequence of the enormous quantity of water which was daily heated in their public baths, the attention of the ancients must necessarily have been directed to the most economical mode of applying the fuel by which the heat of the furnace was maintained: and the following extract from the above mentioned account of Pompeii will show that, even in a small town of ancient Italy, an economical principle was well understood and applied eighteen centuries since, which has only been of late revived in modern science. It is stated in that account (p. 152), that "close to the furnace, at the distance of four inches, a round vacant space still remains, in which was placed the copper for boiling water (caldarium); near which, with the same interval between them, was placed the copper for warm water (tepidarium); and at the distance of two feet from this was the receptacle for cold water (frigidarium). A constant communication was maintained between these vessels; so that as fast as hot water was drawn off from the caldarium, the void was supplied from the tepidarium, which, being already considerably heated, did but slightly reduce the temperature of the hotter boiler. The tepidarium in its turn was supplied from a general reservoir: so that the heat which was not taken up by the first boiler passed on to the second; and, instead of being wasted, did its office in preparing the contents of the second for the higher temperature which it was to obtain in the first. It is but lately that this principle has been introduced into modern furnaces; but its use in reducing the consumption of fuel is well known."

In the same account of Pompeii is afforded a striking instance, with reference to the vapour bath, not only of the similarity of the means employed for producing a similar effect, by individuals between whom no communication can be traced or even supposed; but also a similarity of custom, with reference to the enjoyment of social intercourse, between communities not less widely separated from each other by time and space, than by degree of civilization; between the luxurious inhabitants of imperial Rome eighteen centuries ago, and the savage tribes of North-western America at the present day. The author of the account of Pompeii states (p. 187 -190,) on the authority of Tooke's Russia, "that the Russian baths, as used by the common people, bear a close resemblance to the vapour bath (laconicum) of the Romans. They usually consist of wooden houses, situated, if possible, by the side of a running stream. In the bath-room is a large vaulted oven, which, when heated, makes

the paving stones lying upon it red hot; and adjoining to the oven is a kettle fixed in masonry for the purpose of holding boiling water. In those parts of the country where wood is scarce, the baths sometimes consist of wretched caverns, commonly dug in the earth close . to the bank of some river. The heat in the bath-room is usually from 104° to 122° of Fahrenheit; and may be much increased by throwing water on the glowing hot stones in the chamber of the oven. The Russian baths therefore are vapour-baths; and it appears that even the savage tribes of America are not wholly unacquainted with the use of the vapour-bath. Lewis and Clarke, in their voyage up the Missouri, have described one of these in the following terms: We observed a vapour-bath, consisting of a hollow square of six or eight feet deep, formed in the river bank by damming up with mud the other three sides, and covering the whole completely, except an aperture about two feet wide at the top. The bathers descend by this hole, taking with them a number of heated stones, and jugs of water; and, after being seated round the room, throw the water on the stones till the steam becomes of a temperature sufficiently high for their purposes.'

It appears then, from the foregoing statement, that the peasants of Russia, and the savages of North America, are in the habit of employing the same means for converting water into vapour, which were employed by the Romans at the most luxurious period in their history and to the peasants of Russia and the savages of North America, may be added the natives of New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific ocean; merely with this qualification, that they employ the steam, so raised, not for the purpose of a vapour-bath, but of dressing their food.

It is worthy of notice, as illustrative of the social feeling inherent in human nature, that, equally among the uncivilized natives of America as among the luxurious inhabitants of ancient Italy, "it is very uncommon for an individual to bathe alone; he is generally accompanied by one, or sometimes several, of his acquaintance: bathing indeed is so essentially a social amusement, that to decline going in to bathe, when invited by a friend, is one of the highest indignities that can be offered to him." (p. 190.)

SECTION VI.

The Fluidity of Water.

FAMILIARIZED as we are to the consequences resulting from that property of water, whereby its particles move so easily among them

Sauer, in his account of Billings' expedition, describes the same kind of bath as used in north-western America (p. 175.)