WATER AS A DIETARY CONSTITUENT 



277 



times except during meals," and include almost invariably a warning 

 against ice water and generally against, distilled water. Such advice is 

 analyzed in the following pages. 



Influence of an Increased Water Ingestion upon 



Metabolism 



That an increase in water intake will produce a change in the metabolic 

 response of the human body has been repeatedly demonstrated (Eichhorst 

 Feder(a) (6), 1878, 1881, Falck, E. P. and F. A., Genth, Gruzdiev, Mate- 

 kevich, Becher, Neumann (a), Panum, Rubner(fr), Schondorff(a), Weige- 

 lin, Hawk (a) ). The consensus of opinion on this point is that an increase 

 of 500-5000 c.c. in the daily water intake of a normal man will cause an 

 increased excretion of total nitrogen, urea, phosphorus, and generally 

 sulphur in the urine- The increase in total nitrogen and urea is believed 

 to be due partly to the washing out of the tissues of the urea previously 

 formed, but which has not been removed in the normal processes, and 

 partly to a stimulation of protein catabolism. The increase in the excre- 

 tion of phosphorus is probably due to increased cellular activity and the 

 accompanying catabolism of nucleoproteins, lecithins, and other phos- 

 phorus-containing bodies. A typical nitrogen balance from one of the 

 writer's experiments follows: 



TABLE C INCOME AND OUTGO OF NITROGEN 

 EXPERIMENT I 



In discussing the influence of water upon metabolism Bischoff, as early 

 as 1853, wrote as follows: 



"Water exercises before all other agencies, apart from the nitrogen 

 content of the food, the greatest influence upon the excretion of urea 

 by the urine." . . 



And Foster, the eminent English physiologist, said in an early edil 



of his "Text-book of Physiology" : 



"Water has an effect on metabolism, as shown, among other things, by 



