ON STIMULANTS. 



35 



water as a solvent, 1 It will thus be seen that 

 water plays a most important part in relation to 

 animal life and nutrition. It is also the agent by 

 which the body is cleansed inwardly as well as 

 outwardly, and it is as necessary, though not 

 quite so obvious, that the interior of our bodies 

 should be washed and made clean as the exterior. 

 In the processes of nutrition— in the physi- 

 cal and chemical changes— upon which life de- 

 pends, effete waste products are constantly being 

 discharged into the blood from the tissues of the 

 body, and these have to be got rid of; for, if they 

 are permitted to accumulate in the blood, the 

 body becomes poisoned by them, and life is de- 

 stroyed as certainly as if a large dose of prussic 

 acid or opium were introduced from without. 

 Men do, indeed, frequently die, poisoned by toxic 

 agents which they manufacture within their own 

 organisms. 



One of the uses of water, taken into the body 

 as a beverage, is to dissolve these effete products 

 of the work of the organism, and so to convey 

 them out of the body through the action of the 

 secreting organs. Water is readily absorbed 

 into the blood, and is rapidly discharged from it. 

 In its rapid course through the body it washes, 

 so to speak, the circulating fluid, and carries 

 away, through the channels of excretion, sub- 

 stances, the retention of which in the blood would 

 prove in the highest degree harmful. It may 

 readily be imagined that pure, unadulterated wa- 

 ter performs this function better than any modi- 

 fication of it which we may drink as a beverage. 

 It is, however, quite true that some slightly-min- 

 eralized waters pass through the organism with 

 even greater rapidity than pure water, on ac- 

 count of the stimulating action they most of 

 them exercise on certain of the excretory organs. 

 Mild alkaline waters may also, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, prove more cleansing than pure wa- 

 ter, on account of their greater solvent action on 

 some substances. 



The quantity of water we need in the form of 

 beverage depends greatly on the nature of the 

 other substances we consume as food. With a 

 dietary composed largely of succulent vegetables 

 and fruit, very little of any kind of beverage is 

 required. Much also depends on the manner in 

 which our solid food is cooked — whether, in the 

 case of animal food, the natural juices of the 

 flesh are retained in it or not ; much, too, will 

 depend on those atmospheric and other condi- 

 tions which determine the amount of fluid lost 



1 It is possible that some gaseous bodies may be an 

 exception to this rule. 



by evaporation from the surface of the body. 

 The sensation of thirst is the natural warning 

 that the blood wants water. I may here remark, 

 incidentally, that it is not a wise custom to take 

 excessive quantities of any fluid, even simple wa- 

 ter, with our food, for by so doing we dilute too 

 much the digestive juices, and so retard their sol- 

 vent action on the solid food we have consumed. 

 A draught of fluid, however, toward the end of 

 digestion is often useful in promoting the solu- 

 tion and absorption of the residuum of this pro- 

 cess, or in aiding its propulsion along the diges- 

 tive tube. Hence the custom of taking tea a few 

 hours after dinner, or seltzer or soda water a lit- 

 tle before bedtime. 



It was a necessary preliminary to my present 

 inquiry that I should call attention to this fun- 

 damental physiological requirement. Moreover, I 

 am willing to admit at the outset that water is 

 the only beverage physiologically essential to 

 healthy life. But is this admission of any real 

 consequence? I think not; for our mode of life 

 is rarely constructed in strict accordance with 

 rigorous physiological or chemical analysis. 



Ic is scarcely necessary that I should insist 

 upon the fact that in practical life the strictly 

 essential does not go for much. We need not 

 only that which makes us live, but that also which 

 makes us care to live. And, in my estimation, a 

 delicate appreciation of the qualities of foods 

 and beverages may fairly take its place among 

 our cultivated and reasonable pleasures. I know 

 some persons of intellectual habits who look upon 

 eating and drinking as simply a necessary nui- 

 sance ; and it has been said of the celebrated 

 John, Lord Hervey, that he " breakfasted on an 

 emetic, dined on a biscuit, and regaled -himself 

 once a week with an apple." But his meagre 

 dietary did not make him an amiable or a virtu- 

 ous person. 



It has often been objected to the general use 

 of stimulating beverages that they are luxuries, 

 but I shall not discuss the question whether cer- 

 tain beverages are luxuries or necessaries. No 

 reasonable person that I am acquainted with reg- 

 ulates his own life on any such narrow principle, 

 and we have no right to apply such an unpracti- 

 cal test to the lives of others. The terms whole- 

 some and unwholesome are more suited to my 

 purpose. It concerns every one to know wheth- 

 er any acquired habit of life is immediately or 

 remotely injurious to his physical organism. 



In examining the influence for good or evil 

 which the various beverages commonly consumed 

 in this country exert on human life, it is neces- 



