Water
Next to air, water is the most abundant substance that Divine Providence has provided on this earth. It is found widely diffused through Nature, both in the free state and combined with other substances. It is a constituent of all animal and plant life, and is present as water of crystallization in many organic and inorganic salts. It is present as an invisible vapor in the air in which condition it has a far reaching effect on the fermentation of doughs. It is also present in the air, as rain, snow, hail, dew and fog, and in the earth and sea water, river water, lake water, springs, wells, and subterranean waters.
Absolute water is a chemical compound of oxygen and hydrogen, being combined in a proportion of one part of oxygen and two parts of hydrogen by volume, or eight parts of oxygen to one part of hydrogen by weight. Water may be prepared in the laboratory by bringing together the proper proportion of the oxygen and hydrogen in a suitable container and passing an electric spark through the mixture. Under such conditions oxygen will unite with hydrogen with explosive violence and water will result. Absolute water is a colorless, odorless and tasteless liquid.
Action of Water in Nature. As water is, next to air, the most abundant and the greatest solvent known, it brings about many changes in nature. Hardly a change can occur in the mineral or vegetable kingdom without the presence of water. Through the ages water has brought about many geological changes through its solvent powers assisted at times by high temperature and pressure. By its solvent action it has dissolved many minerals and salts from the earth's strata carrying it on for a distance when, coming into contact with other minerals and salts, new compounds have been formed, some of which being insoluble were again deposited as new stratified formations.
This is one of nature's ways of changing formations and producing new ones.
The great leaching power of water can be observed in many caves and subterranean passages, where water has made great deposits of curious formations from mineral matter and salts where cycles of the marblelike substances may be seen which have been formed by the water containing soluble salts, slowly trickling down when the soluble salts are slowly changed to insoluble formations as they come in contact with the air. Because water has these solvent powers it dissolves much mineral matter as it travels through the earth and over rock, and therefore pure water is not known in nature. Even rain water, which is thought by many to be pure, absorbs many of the impurities of the air such as ammonia, nitrogen, oxygen, carbondioxide, sulphurdioxide and suspended matter. When water has absorbed carbondioxide and sulphurdioxide to some extent it becomes acid in reactions and has then a greater leaching effect upon the earth, and, consequently, can carry more dissolved and suspended matter. When pure water is spoken of in a general way, it is meant that the water is potable, and is fit for human consumption, although it may contain considerable chemical impurities in the form of mineral matter both in solution and suspension.