LIQUIDS. 301 



substances, are far inferior to those without them, except it be to 

 those whose tastes are perverted and unnatural. 



All alkalies, except such as are naturally contained in food, 

 should be avoided during health, for they impair the power of the 

 stomach to digest the food, by destroying or neutralizing the 

 natural acidity of the gastric juice, without which digestion cannot 

 be performed. 



Acids are less objectionable than alkalies, but if used at all, 

 should be used very moderately, except in certain states of the 

 system, as in scurvy, when vegetable acids are very beneficial, 

 vinegar should be used, if at all, very sparingly. 



LIQUIDS. 



Water There is no beverage so wholesome, or to the unper- 

 verted taste so agreeable, as pure water, the natural drink of man, 

 which may always be taken in moderation when thirst is present. 

 In some form or other it is essential to life. Water is requisite in 

 many functions of the animal economy; for example, it favors 

 digestion by promoting the solution of our food and acts as a vehicle 

 to convey the more dense and less fluid substances from the stomach 

 to their destination in the body. It gives fluidity to the blood, 

 holding in suspension or solution the red globules, fibrin, albumen 

 and all the various substances which enter the different structures ; 

 for the whole body is formed from the blood. Not only the soft 

 parts of the body but even the very materials of the bones have at 

 one time flowed in the current of the blood. Water enters into the 

 composition of the tissues of the body, lubricates those tissues and 

 forms a necessary part of our bodily structure. It equalizes the 

 the temperature of the body by evaporation and regulates the chemi- 

 cal changes resulting from nutrition and decay. It is the vehicle 

 for the removal of effete products from the body ; increased water- 

 drinking causes increased flow of urine and thereby facilitates the 

 excretion of solid particles. In this way some of the impurities 

 which cause gout, gravel, etc., may be eliminated. How essential 

 water is for the development and maintenance of the animal body 

 is shown by the fact that a human body, weighing 154 Ibs., con- 

 tains 111 Ibs. of water. A man of adult age, average size and 

 ordinary employment, requires from three to four pints of liquid to 

 drink in the twenty-four hours. Such facts suggest the necessity 

 for obtaining pure water, and taking it unpolluted by animal and 

 mineral ingredients. Notwithstanding, where strict chemical purity 

 and an unlimited supply of water cannot both be secured, the latter 

 should be regarded as of the greater importance. 



It had been supposed that water should not be taken with meals, 

 lest it should lessen the digestive power of the gastric juice by 

 diluting it. But the later view is that, while as the fluid is 



