60 



EFFECTS PRODUCED BY DRINKING 



Effects pro- 

 duced by 

 drinking 

 water and 

 saline solu- 

 tions. 



Spring 

 water. 



Solution 

 containing 

 f to 1 per 

 cent, of 

 salt. 



liquids circulating in these two systems have very 

 unequal velocities, and as the blood moves much 

 faster in the blood-vessels, we perceive how it 

 happens, that the fluids of the intestine are chiefly 

 (in quantity and in velocity) taken up into the 

 circulation. 



The difference in the absorbent power of the 

 parietes of the intestinal canal for liquids which 

 contain unequal amounts of dissolved matters, is 

 easily observed in the effects produced on the 

 organism by water arid saline solutions. 



If we take, while fasting, every ten minutes, a 

 glass of ordinary spring water, the saline contents 

 of which are much less than those of the blood, 

 there occurs, after the second glass (each glass con- 

 taining 4 ounces), an evacuation of coloured urine, 

 the weight of which is very nearly equal to that of 

 the first glass ; and after taking, in this way, 20 such 

 glasses of water, we have had 19 evacuations of 

 urine, the last of which is colourless, and contains 

 hardly more saline matter than the spring water. 



If we make the same experiment with a water, 

 containing as much saline matter as the blood (f to 

 1 per cent, of sea salt), there is no unusual discharge 

 of urine, and it is difficult to drink more than three 

 glasses of such water. A sense of repletion, pres- 

 sure, and weight of the stomach point out, that 

 water as strongly charged with saline matter as the 

 blood requires a longer time for its absorption into 

 the blood-vessels. 



