The drying-up process has been comparatively rapid since the middle of the 19th century, a town which in 1850 was on the southern margin of the lake being in 1905 over 20 m.
Many smaller streams discharge into the Paraguay and Parana from the west, some of them wholly dependent upon the rains, and drying up during long droughts.
In the northern part of Corrientes there is a large area of swamps and shallow lagoons which are believed to be slowly drying up.
NecrosisA number of diseases the obvious symptoms of which are the local drying up and death of tissues, in many cases with secondary results on organs or parts of organs, may be brought together under this heading.
Thus its non-liability to freeze (when not absolutely anhydrous, which it practically never is when freely exposed to the air) and its nonvolatility at ordinary temperatures, combined with its power of always keeping fluid and not drying up and hardening, render it valuable as a lubricating agent for clockwork, watches, &c., as a substitute for water in wet gas-meters, and as an ingredient in cataplasms, plasters, modelling clay, pasty colouring matters, dyeing materials, moist colours for artists, and numerous other analogous substances which are required to be kept in a permanently soft condition.
