722 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
with tea. Dr. Dabbs has recently explained how to employ a 
rough but reliable extempore test in the case of suspected drinking 
water. “To get a perfectly clean, rounded, glass soda-water 
bottle and fill it with some of the questionable water; then to 
cork it with a new, unimpeachable cork. But before it is corked 
down, the addition must be made to it of as much white sifted 
cane sugar as would cover a two shilling piece. The bottle is 
then to be corked, and placed for two days in the sun. [If its 
contents become milky or clouded, then the presence of sewage 
is to be suspected. ‘1 have never known this rough test to 
fail,” says Dr. Dabbs. ‘‘ On the whole,” writes Dr. Hutchison, 
** after an exhaustive, and impartial consideration of the subject, 
I am bound to admit that-there is no better beverage for gouty 
persons than plain water; and they should be encouraged to 
drink freely of it, as an admirable aid to the elimination of 
nitrogenous waste.” Again, Dr. Woods Hutchinson (Lancet, 
1903) says, “‘ The one element, whether we call it a food, or a 
medicine, which has been found to be of overwhelming importance 
and value in the treatment of gout, is Water; it acts most 
admirably, first by sweeping out the alimentary canal primarily, 
and the liver, kidneys, and skin secondarily, and next by supply- 
ing to the body cells that abundant salt water bath in which 
alone they can live, and discharge their functions. Ninety-nine 
per cent of our body cells, we too often forget, are still aquatic 
organisms, and marine at that. What salts, we may choose to 
dissolve in the water is purely a matter of taste. The one 
active agent in all the mineral waters which are so much 
vaunted, is the water; and the wonderful effect of mineral 
water resorts, many in number, for helping to cure this disease 
(the gout) is mainly due to the one thing which they all have 
in common—plain water,—plus suggestion, and aided of course 
by the healthful air of the springs, also by the excellent hygienic 
rules which are enjoined as part of the cure. 
By the substitution of distilled water, or rain water, instead 
of water drawn from the well, or pump, for daily drinking, cases 
of goitre, or enlarged gland in front of the neck, have been success- 
fully treated when all the customary medicinal agents, such as 
iodine, iodide of potash, hydrofluoric acid, and digitalis, had 
signally failed. Even when the glandular tumour is of long 
standing, the exclusive use of distilled water as a beverage will 
gradually bring about diminution, and finally disappearance of 
