Hard water is a less perfect solvent of organic matter than soft water; hence in the preparation of infusions and decoctions, and for many economical purposes, as making tea and coffee, and brewing, it is much inferior to soft water, and for the same reasons it is improper as a drink in dyspeptic affections, causing irritation, and a sensation of weight in the stomach. The abundance of this earthy salt in the water of Paris, and London, of many parts of Switzerland and this country, cause uncomfortable feelings in strangers who visit these places. It is also said to produce calculous complaints in the inhabitants, a result which

might be expected, owing to the low solvent power of the water not being sufficient to carry off the animal acid, which concretes in the kidneys to form calculi.* Well

* The bad effects of hard water on the animal system, are likewise manifested in horses. " Hard water

drawn fresh from the well," says Mr. Youatt, "will assuredly make the coat of a horse uaccustomed to it stare, and it will not unfrequently gripe, and otherwise injure him. Instinct, or experience, has made even the horse himself conscious of this ; for he will never drink hard water, if he has access to soft ; he will leave the most transparent water of the well, for the river, although the water may be turbid, and

water can be easily freed from these earthy salts ; boiling precipitates the carbonate

of lime by driving off the carbonic acid which holds it in solution ; and the addition of a little carbonate of soda precipitates the lime, if any exist in the water. Many persons prefer the taste of hard water to that of soft, and a change from one to the