700 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



The liver may be set to work, and by the same 

 means the bowels and the kidneys can be made more 

 active, and that is simply by the frequent drinking 

 of pure water. The old German water-cure doctors 

 found this out almost a hundred years ago. Old Dr. 

 Pressnitz, of Graefenberg, used to recommend from 

 twelve to twenty glasses of water a day, to be taken in 

 connection with mountain climbing. There were beau- 

 tiful springs along the mountain side, and walking and 

 climbing, his patients would drink from six to twelve 

 glasses before breakfast, and the dose could be re- 

 peated two or three times in the course of a day. 

 Water is the best means of all for cleansing the stom- 

 ach, liver, and kidneys. Every part of the body is 

 permeated and cleansed. When we take water into 

 the stomach, it is absorbed, and by the muscular action 

 of the diaphragm this pure water is drawn into the 

 body, and carries impurities out. 



It is very interesting to notice how all these reme- 

 dies co-operate: warm baths to make the skin active; 

 exercise to make the lungs more active; and hot-water 

 drinking to increase the activity of the kidneys, bowels, 

 and liver. The warm baths take some of the fluids out 

 of the blood. Persons may lose even two pounds— 

 that means two pints of water— through the skin in a 

 hot bath. This excretion carries with it a large quan- 

 tity of impurities, and this makes a person thirsty, 

 and increases the amount of water-drinking, which 

 supplies the water taken from the blood, while the 

 water-drinking promotes the sweating,— action and 

 reaction constantly. By exercise the lungs are made 

 to act more vigorously. This increases the action of 

 the diaphragm, and that squeezes the liver and presses 

 the old bile out of it; and this, again, augments the 



