Water
Water is one of the most common things in the world, and one of the most valuable. There is nothing more useful and nothing cheaper. It is in the air, on the land, and forms the sea. It covers three-quarters of the world’s surface. It has no taste, colour or smell, but will readily take the taste, colour and smell of what is put into it and can melt in it. It will dissolve a very large number of substances and absorb gases and so it is very difficult to get perfectly pure water. If we wish to have it absolutely pure, we must distil it, that is, turn it into steam and condense the steam into water again. If we wish to have it free from microbes which are the germs of disease, we must boil it. It is never really safe to drink unboiled water in India. If everybody boiled their drinking water, there would soon be a very great decrease in cholera, dysentery and similar diseases. Rain is really distilled water and is quite pure until it reaches the earth. It is not until we are without water that we value it at its true worth.
