Drinking water

“ The majority of people who work outside and perform muscular labor crave and take an abundance of water. Many of those who live indoors, especially in steam-heated houses, may need it quite as much if not more, but get out of the habit of drinking water. As we need about three quarts of water per day for use in our economy, this no water habit often becomes a serious factor in the production of physiological disturbances. We have replaced water drinking and the milk drinking of the olden times by tea and coffee, and as these are stimulants, habits form very readily with regard to them. ”

“ And that water is the best remedy for the mischiefs that come by hard drinking, experience teacheth; there being nothing that so effectually frees from these nauseating and reaching qualms the next morning, as the drinking a pint or more of fair water; which effectually allays the inflammation of the bowels, occasioned by strong or hot drink, which spoils the strength of the stomach, and of all other parts ”

“ Sources of Water Supply.—All our drinking water is obtained in the first instance, by a natural process of distillation on a large scale. The sun is constantly causing evaporation from sea and land. The vapour produced, being condensed by a lower temperature, returns to the earth as snow, dew or rain. All these natural products have been at times utilised as sources of drinking water. ”

“ The use of water is a matter of habit, very much within our control, as by practice we may discipline ourselves so as to require but a small amount. Some persons, for example, who place no restraint upon their appetites, will, if they can get it, drink water twenty times a day, while others will not perhaps drink more than once or twice during the same time. I have found a very effectual preventive to thirst by drinking a large quantity of water before breakfast, and, on feeling thirsty on the march, chewing a small green twig or leaf. ”

“ But we do not shrink from drinking the water which has been defiled by ourselves. River-water, for instance, is regarded as quite good for drinking, although we throw into it all sorts of rubbish, and also use it for washing purposes. We should make it a rule never to drink the water in which people bathe. The upper portion of the river should be set apart for drinking water, the lower being reserved for bathing and washing purposes. Where there is no such arrangement, it is a good practice to dig in the sand, and take drinking water therefrom. ”

“ Water-drinking may be made a means of bathing the internal structures, as external applications bathe the outside. Water is rapidly absorbed by the mucous membrane of the stomach, and, passing through the circulation, it dissolves many impurities, and is eliminated chiefly by the kidneys and skin. It can be used with benefit in connection with the vapor bath, hot-air bath, and all baths in which sweating is induced. ”

“ Why our Drinking Water is Likely to be Impure. Every drop of water that we drink or use, fell somewhere on the surface of the earth, in the form of rain or snow; and if we wish to find out whether it is pure and safe, we must trace its course through the soil, or the streams, from the point where it fell. ”

“ If you are not furnished with a cup, and are obliged to drink by bringing your mouth in contact with the stream which issues from a pump, or a spring, always wash your hands and face, previously to your drinking, with a little of the cold water. ”

“ Those who have neglected their natural instincts for many years have almost forgotten the natural habit of water drinking, and need considerable practice to regain it. A little practice will soon begin to create a demand for water, and you will in time regain the natural thirst. ”

“ Too prolonged an application may result in injury to the part.
153 WATER-DRINKING. As a remedial agent, water is of far greater value than any other liquid taken into the stomach. Its uses in preserving health have been previously noticed. Under ordinary circumstances, a person in health who discards irritating condiments from his diet seldom requires drink. Many persons take no drink whatever during the winter months. But drinking is healthful, and pure water of proper temperature may be taken by any one in health or disease if it is taken in the proper manner. ”

“ To the practised bather the drinking of water during the perspiration of the body is reviving and necessary, because his blood has need of water to supply the place of that which has been withdrawn by the skin, and the amount of need is expressed by his thirst. But the beginner has no thirst, and he will do well to avoid drinking, as calculated to increase the labour of perspiration, and likely therefore to be followed by oppression and faintness. ”

“ All of the seven doctors who were interviewed about the benefits of water drinking agreed that the copious drinking of water was a preventive of disease, and they had known many cases in which health was restored by the drinking of water in large quantities. One doctor advocates the drinking of as much as three gallons of water a day in very warm weather, reducing the amount when the weather is cooler, but never drinking less than a gallon a day. ”

“ It has been estimated that an average-sized adult loses by means of the lungs, skin, and kidneys about eighty ounces of water every twenty-four hours. To restore this loss about four pints must be taken daily. About one pint of this is obtained from the food we eat, the remaining three pints being taken as drink. One of the best ways of supplying water to the body is by drinking it in its pure state, when its solvent properties can be completely utilized. The amount of water consumed depends largely upon the amount of work performed by the body, and upon the temperature. ”

“ Which coolness of the blood will be well attained to by drinking a large draught of water in the morning, which also will carry off the bilious and salt recrements by urine. And, if water is drank also after dinner, it will cool a hot stomach, and prevent the rising of those fermentations which cause wind and belching after meat. So that if persons who are liable to these disorders will leave off strong liquors and a hot diet, and drink water, they will procure better health to themselves than they had before. ”

“ A different man, however, called an aubdar, takes care that proper drinking water is supplied—we generally used rain water, which was collected in large sheets stretched out between four poles in the rainy season, and drained into earthen jars, where it keeps cool and sweet. ”

“ And he says, that those who recommend the drinking of cold water do so because they have an eye to such a fact as this,—that warm water cleanses one's hands more quickly than cold; on which account it is reasonable to believe that food in the stomach will be quickly washed away by warm water. ”

“ At bedtime, one or more glasses may be drunk if one does not suffer from inconvenience from a full bladder during the sleeping hours.
One should make water-drinking a habit, like eating, sleeping, defecating, etc. Water-drinking should be performed at regular periods during the day. System is as essential for the harmonious working of the organs as it is for the relations of the departments in a business, or of the details of any particular department. The guide to the order and temperature to be adopted is agreeable­ness. ”

“ They throw the Leaves into boiling Water, which they forthwith take off the Fire; and when the Leaves have subsided, which is generally in a Quarter of an Hour, they drink the Water, from which they find three very happy Effects; the first of which is to repress Vapours, and alleviate Pains of the Head: For when I laboured under an Hemicrania, or any other Disorder of the Head, by drinking this Water, I had my Pain so quickly alleviated, as if a Person had done it by the Application of his Hand. ”

“ How many invalids, in England, would start from their beds at five o’clock in the morning, to drink salt and water till seven or eight o’clock, using their limbs all the time in locomotion? very few!
12. The warm bathing, which generally precedes or accompanies the drinking of the waters, has also great effect in augmenting the medicinal agency of the waters taken internally. The circulation is drawn to the surface—the insensible perspiration augmented—and various internal organs sympathise with the skin and are relieved from habitual congestion. ”

“ Moderate drinking is beneficial during a fast as well as at other times; but excessive consumption of water, the so-called flushing of the system, is very injurious. Under ordinary conditions from five to eight glasses of water a day are probably sufficient; the quantity consumed must be regulated by the desire of the patient. ”

“ The liberal use of cold water alone, in drinking, washing, and bathing, is often sufficient to effect a cure. Drinking of sea water, gentle purgatives, with bark and bitters, light and nourishing food, early rising, and gentle exercise in the open air, are also of great importance. ”

“ Give the body plenty of pure water, inside and outside, a gallon a day inside, a thorough [Pg 59] bathing of the whole body at least once a day, and plenty of exercise, preferably by outdoor walking, and you can’t very well be sick. If any one would do that, one-half the doctors would have to seek some other business. If every woman would do that, the rouge and complexion powder factories would shut down. There is nothing so good as plenty of water drunk every day for the complexion.”
One physician said: “I am not claiming that the drinking of plenty of water is a preventive of all diseases ”

“ The liberal use of water keeps the blood supplied with the necessary moisture, and that excess which is eliminated through the kidneys carries away poisons that would reside in the body very much to the detriment of health. There is little danger, therefore, in drinking too much pure water, but much care should be exercised that it be pure, or at least free from lime and mineral deposits. The best water is pure water, free from all mineral substances. ”

“ Sir John Floyer also, in his treatise of cold baths, p. 109, edit. 5, affirms, that water-drinkers are temperate in their actions, prudent and ingenious; they live safe from those diseases which affect the head, such as apoplexies, palsies, pain, blindness, deafness, gout, convulsions, trembling, madness: And the drinking of water cures the hiccough, fætor of the mouth, and of the whole body ”

“ One must conclude that within reasonable limits there is little to choose between a hard and soft water for drinking purposes, although a change from a soft water to a hard, or vice versa, usually produces temporary derangements. ”

“ Many chronic troubles result from the simple neglect to supply the body with sufficient water. An average grown person should have two quarts of water a day and more in warmer weather. The lack of any habitual time for drinking this water usually results in not getting it at all. ”

“ The system requires a certain amount of liquid nourishment. We have to get that in the form of liquid, and many people take it by using water to excess—drinking quantities of water. On the other hand, there are some people who never drink more than a glass of water all day long. ”

“ To the surface of the earth we owe thus a purifying influence whose activity furnishes us vegetation and food on the one hand and preservation from disease on the other. This purifying power is not possessed by the deeper layers, and therefore the percolation of organic refuse into them from deep cesspools is wasteful to agriculture and dangerous to our storehouse of drinking water.
Even the surface of the soil when overloaded with sewage loses partially its power of purifying the organic matter. ”

“ The fountains and conduits in the street flowed with red and white wine instead of water; the rich citizens hung silks and cloths of the brightest colours out of their windows to increase the beauty of the show, and threw out gold and silver by whole handfuls to make scrambles for the crowd. In short, there was such eating and drinking, such music and capering, such a ringing of bells and tossing of caps, such a shouting, and singing, and revelling, as the narrow overhanging streets of old London City had not witnessed for many a long day. ”

“ Curtis, in his Essay for the preservation and recovery of Health; the habitual use of water for common drink, preserves the native ferment of the stomach in due order, keeps the blood temperate, and helps to spin out the thread of life to the longest extent of nature; it makes the rest at night more quiet and refreshing, the reason and understanding more clear, the passions less disorderly; and, in case of eating too much, a large draught of cold water vastly exceeds any other cordial to cause digestion: water being not so cold and lifeless, he saith, as many imagine. ”

“ And I have observed, that when in fevers the patient can relish no other drink, yet water is always drank with pleasure, as it also will always be after the eating of sweet things, that spoil the relish of other drinks; which is one excellence peculiar to water, and shews it to be most agreeable to the nature of mankind, tho’ now so much slighted. And, besides this, it is a drink that will not turn sour in the stomach, as all fermented drinks will do, to the increase of distempers already begun there, by acidity or sourness. ”

“ Water enters more or less largely into the composition of all alimentary substances, and is taken into the stomach in a pure state, or forms the principal part of the various kinds of drinks in use.
Water is unquestionably the natural drink of adults, and meets the wants of the body more perfectly than any of the artificial liquids which are regarded as improvements on water. Whenever a man is left to the cravings of instinct, unbiased by a vicious appetite, he invariably resorts to water as the natural means to quench his thirst, cool his system, and invigorate his wasting strength. ”