Aq´ua

(Lat. for water), a word much used in pharmacy and old chemistry.— Aqua fortis (= strong water), a weak and impure nitric acid. It has the power of eating into steel and copper, and hence is used by engravers, etchers, .— Aqua marina , a fine variety of beryl. See Aquamarine .— Aqua regia , or aqua regal is (= royal water), a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, with the power of di olving gold and other precious metals.— Aqua Tofana , a poisonous fluid made about the middle of the seventeenth century by an Italian woman Tofana or Toffania, who is said to have procured the death of no fewer than 600 individuals by means of it. It consisted chiefly, it is supposed, of a solution of crystallized arsenic.— Aqua vitæ (= water of life), or simply aqua , a name familiarly applied to the whisky of Scotland, corresponding in meaning with the usquebaugh of Ireland, the eau de vie (brandy) of the French. 209