What Is Water?

Befc-jre elofing, raay I iermitted to aglí a i'.l t1) 1'is.wcr the question, What is water 't I Buppoee BOine oí ïr.y readers aro ready to mnke tlio JDogberry-like reply, " Water, fcir, is water.". 'Chut ceriainiy roaches tho patat by a very short cut, but to the thinking, inquiring mun it is nut quito gatisfactury. Lot us anBwor the question from the standpoint of h: . Wiöiï-i. Water is rvat. The red powder thut falls from iron tliat h:is Ion; been Bubjeeted to moistiire is rust of iron. Tt is the oxide í :i metal, uw so is water. "Water is lbo. nist of hydiogèhilim, true metal. Tbis wouderful element no human oyes llave ever ).l;ed upon, and grobab'y never vn, as in its freo state it exists only in tho form of an invisible Tas. Quite reeently, soience hag S'.r.ited expuriiuantiilly, what has long besn Btwpected, that hydrogen gas is a nital, and oapable of i'í-n'ü'ij; a solid form in alloya. Oxygcn, by üniting with this gaeeoiu metal, rusta, oiidizes, of burns it, und wateris the rust ur ashes. This 6traii{;e metal, hydrogenium, und its oxide, pluy an important part in all tho oporations ot' nature. IL is not alonoconñnot to tae littloball of aarth upon which we live, but it exists in thD efellar worlds ftbove us, and in those misty pointe of light, the nebnlüs whioh íkivo so long jiHazied and perpiesod iw astronomer and men versod in the pbyBioal soienoos. The reeent discoverics by mean of' the spootroscopc! havo proved that this pip inent enters [argêïy into tho unformod, pbaotio miissos of matter, moving in gpaoe, wf '-wlycH-tli& worlds are made. ft is j ' itxxly. wh'-n the fonnative aot is fully : % eomplished, f'r taking its place, in j binadon with oxygen, as water, to aid in tho susten tution 01 animal and vegetable life upon spheres so far distant that our imncinntion evon cannot roach thotn.