Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does
not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment.
The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids
that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They
all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which
determines their flavour.
[Aristotle describing his distillation experiment.]
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster.
Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).