_Softening by distillation_.--By evaporation, water is completely separated from all fixed saline matters, and consequently from all hardening matters. Distilled water, however, has a vapid and unpleasant taste, due partly to deficient aeration and partly to the presence of traces of volatile organic matter; and though filtration through animal charcoal will remove this, and the aeration can begin chemically, the process is too expensive, except in certain cases, as on board ship, or at military or naval stations where no potable water exists. _Softening by carbonate of soda_.--The hardness of water, as already explained, being principally due to the presence in solution of bicarbonates and sulphates of lime and magnesia, can be reduced by addition of carbonate of soda, which decomposes these salts slowly in cold water but quickly in hot, forming insoluble compounds of lime and magnesia, which are slowly precipitated as a fine mud, leaving the water charged, however, with a solution of bicarbonate and sulphate of soda. This process, on account of expense, is only applicable on a small scale to the water for laundry purposes, as the water acquires an unpleasant taste from the presence of the soda salts. For laundry purposes it is, however, valuable, as it effects a great saving of soap. _The softening of water by boiling_.--That portion of the hardness of water due to the presence of bicarbonate of lime, magnesia, or iron, is corrected by boiling the water for half an hour. During ebullition the bicarbonates, which are soluble, become carbonates, which are insoluble, giving off their carbonic acid as gas, rendering--by the precipitate produced, but not allowed in a boiler time to settle--the water muddy, but incapable of decomposing soap. To raise the temperature of 1,000 gallons of water to the boiling point and to maintain it for half an hour requires the consumption of about 2½ cwt. of coal, or by the wasteful appliances found in households, probably three times that amount. Softened by boiling, then, 1,000 gallons of water would cost about 7s. 6d., while the cost of softening the same amount by soap is 9s., at £2 6s. 6d. per cwt.