WATER, a well known fluid, diffused through the atmosphere, and over the surface of the globe, and abounding in a certain proportion in animals, vegetables, and minerals.
The uses of water are so universally known, that it would be superfluous to enumerate them in this article. It is essential to animal and vegetable life; it makes easy the intercourse between the most distant regions of the world; and it is one of the most useful powers in the mechanic arts. It is often found combined with various substances, and is then frequently beneficial in curing or alleviating diseases.
Those properties of water which fit it for answering mechanical purposes are explained in other articles of
this work (see HYDRODYNAMICS, PNEUMATICS, No. 3. RESISTANCE, and RIVERS); and for the discovery of the composition of water, see CHEMISTRY Index.
Mineral Waters. For the method of analysing them, see also CHEMISTRY Index.
Under the title of MINERAL Waters, we have given an analysis of the most remarkable waters in Europe.