Under the reign of Nero, Charmis acquired a great vogue by extolling cold baths,[XXV-42] even in the depth of winter. This dexterous native of Marseilles knew so well how to persuade people, that he could hardly attend to his immense connection; and as he sometimes required as much as £800 from his patients,[XXV-43] he soon became as celebrated for his riches as for his pretended medical genius. Who will say, after this, that the water-cure system is good for nothing? “In Egypt, rich people have the water brought to them from the Nile in leather pouches. Large and porous earthen pots of an oval shape, kept up by supporters, are filled with it. The water at the end of a few hours has deposited the slime it contained. It is afterwards distributed in small vases of terra cotta, called _bardaks_, of the size of our water-jugs. These vases are taken in the most showy part of the habitation. In a short time the clay of the _bardaks_ is impregnated; their surface is covered with water, which, after borrowing from the liquid within the caloric it requires for evaporation, reduces this to a temperature of six or seven degrees under that which it had before.”--PARMENTIER. More than five centuries ago the Sieur de Joinville described the same process. “The water of the Nile,” he said, “is of such a nature, that when we hung it in white earthen pots, made in the country, to the rigging of our ships, the water became in the heat of the day as cold as spring-water.”[XXV-44] Sea-water is not potable, but it has long since been remarked that the vapours which rise from the sea are soft, and it was thence concluded that, by collecting and condensing them, it would be possible to obtain a potable liquid fit for domestic purposes. This phenomenon was known in the time of Pliny, who informs us that, “fleece spread about the ship, after having received the exhalations from the sea, becomes damp, and that fresh water may be extracted from it.”[XXV-45] About the middle of the last century means were found to remove DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XVII. No. 1. Pail, of bronze, with movable handle, covered with hieroglyphics, to carry water from the Nile for the Feast of Isis. No. 2. Pail, with two handles, same metal, placed on a small tripod to stand upon, owing to the convexity of the bottom.--ST. NON, “_Herculaneum_.” the saline substances from sea-water. Boyle, Leibnitz, the Count of Marsigli--all had made a great number of fruitless experiments. Mr. Poissonnier invented a very simple distillating machine, with which, and an absorbing powder, he succeeded in depriving sea-water of its insufferable bitterness, and rendering it perfectly salubrious. About 1784, a successful experiment was made at York with a machine which produced the same result.