The persons employed by government first distilled a sufficient quantity of seawater, without the admixture of any other substance. This produce dissolved soap, dressed vegetables, produced the same appearances, with the aerometer, as that distilled from spring water. There was no difference between the one and the other. But the distilled seawater had always that empyreumatic taste and smell, of which we have before spoken; and it was so strong, that the commission at Toulon called it _odeur de marine_, and _odeur de marecage_. But this is not peculiar to seawater, for the result of a distillation of fresh water had always the same taste and smell. Neither of these liquids immediately loses this by being filtered through charcoal; but by being exposed for some time to the air, the distilled seawater loses this unpleasant quality, and then it does not differ from fresh water derived from the purest source; and both have equally stood every chemical test to which they have been exposed. The chemical properties of this water having thus been determined, it remains to give an account of the effects upon the individuals who underwent the experiment. These are the principal results: _Brest._ During the first days, those who drank the water complained of a weight upon the stomach. This indisposition, which was the only one they experienced, soon decreased upon taking exercise, and totally went off by an additional ounce of biscuit added to their common ration. One of them, on the 29th day, had a few symptoms, but which he himself attributed to an indigestion, from some bacon he had eaten. Eight individuals drank twenty-five pints a day, rather more than three pints each,--(N. B. The French pint contains very near fifty-seven cubic inches of English measure, and is the regulation size for the claret or Bordeaux bottle; but in general the bottles are rather smaller. The French pint is therefore equal to rather more than nineteen-twentieths of an English quart, wine measure.) _Toulon._ The results obtained at the arsenal of this town, were not less decisive or satisfactory. The six persons who made the experiment acquired a greater degree of freshness in their appearance, and were much fatter. Their daily consumption of distilled water was nine pounds (_poids de marc_) for drink, and eleven pounds for cooking. This is nearly the same relative quantity as those at Brest. _Rochefort._ The experiments here have not been made with the same regularity; because the fifteen persons fixed upon had all agreed to say that they were very ill. The two principal ones complained of violent cholics and diarrhœas: but the plot was discovered, and upon being put upon the sick-list, (_à la diète_,) they were laughed at by their companions. No one of them was really indisposed; on the contrary, many thought they experienced some good effect in regard to some infirmities under which they had long laboured.