There is one practical matter of great importance to which we wish to draw the attention of all concerned; it is the effect of boiling linen in hard water. If clothes are put into cold water, and then boiled, the precipitation of chalk (which has been so often alluded to) takes place on the clothes, and whatever colouring matter exists in the water goes down with the chalk, and also becomes attached to the linen, rendering it of that disagreeable and unremovable dirty hue which is so characteristic of certain laundries. If boiling is absolutely requisite for white fabrics, it should be done in water which has been boiled half an hour, allowed to stand, and then poured off from the sediment; otherwise, from the immediate precipitation of the chalk, the dirt is boiled in and thoroughly fixed to the fabric. A moment’s consideration will convince any one that a deposit similar to the _fur_ in a tea-kettle cannot be expected to improve the appearance of white linen. Where clear rain water can be obtained, there is no objection to the boiling of clothes in it, as, being absolutely free from lime, no precipitation can take place. The use of soda in softening water employed in washing, is well known; but the remedy is not without its own evil: it weakens the fibre of the cloth, and unless it is much more thoroughly removed by rinsing than is usually the case, it occasions a very permanent yellow tinge when the cloth is heated. VIII. BOILING, STEWING, ETC. From our last article on the properties of hard and soft water, we pass, by a natural transition, to the employment of that liquid in the culinary operations above named. In practice, nothing can at first sight appear more simple than the operation of boiling, whether it be confined to the mere heating of a liquid, or extended to the preparation of an article of food; yet it is one which involves chemical principles of a very high order, and which is by no means so simple a matter as it may be regarded at a cursory glance.