IT has often been remarked that man can live a comparatively long time without solid food, providing that he can only obtain water, of which the chief bulk of the human body is made. Dying by thirst is a horribly painful death, but, according to Mr. Mills, the ill-fated Australian traveller, “starvation on nardoo (an innutritious plant) is by no means unpleasant, but from the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move one's self.”

Those who have been shipwrecked, and unable to obtain fresh water, have always found that the tortures of thirst were infinitely harder to endure than those of hunger; and the reader will probably remember that those who perished in the Black Hole of Calcutta owed their deaths chiefly to thirst, their bodies being exhausted of moisture by the heat of the room, and no fresh supply attainable.

Civilisation especially shows itself in the way in which water is brought within the reach of every one, even in the most crowded of cities. The reader may probably call to mind the wonderful aqueducts of ancient Rome, the gigantic remains of which still exist. Then, as to our own country, we are all practically acquainted with some water company, by which the water, more or less purified, is brought into our houses, and can be obtained by the mere turning of a tap.