ABSTRACT
Smith initially enrolled at Glasgow University at a young age to study divinity but dropped out and took up work as a private science tutor. Rain has generally been considered as water simply, and its beneficial effects on man have been indefinitely summed up in the idea of refreshing. All the rain was found to contain sulphuric acid in proportion as it approached the town, and with the increase of acid the increase also of organic matter. It becomes clear from the experiments that rain-water in town districts, even a few miles distant from a town, is not a pure water for drinking; and that, if it could be got direct from the clouds in large quantities, the people must still resort to collecting it on ground in order to get it pure. A specimen taken in Greenheys fields, half a mile from extreme south-west of Manchester, wind blowing west, had a peculiarly oily and bitter taste when freshly caught.
