This Treatise, he says, was read before the Royal Academy of Sweden the third day of April 1742. ...This was eleven Months after mine was laid before… - Stephen Hales

St. Basil, in his Homilies, says that when Men were cast on an Island, where there was no fresh Water; and they boiled Sea-Water; and catched the Vapour with Sponges, which they squeezed into another Boiler; and having passed thus, four or five Times from Boilers thro' Sponges, it became drinkable. This tedious way was used before the method of Disttiling was known, which was an Invention of the Arabs.

I was at first much discouraged, when I reflected on my Rashness, in venturing on an Undertaking, which had baffled the repeated Attempts of the best Philosophers and Chymists, both Ancient and Modern: In so much that they looked upon it as almost impracticable to find out any way to procure a wholesome Drink from Sea-Water.

We have... many proofs of the great force with which plants and their several branches and leaves imbibe moisture, up their capillary sap vessels: The great influence the perspiring leaves have in this work...