280 PHILIP B. HAWK 



true when the temperature falls. In general, however, the output of 

 water is very little affected in disease. 



That a lack of free water in the body may bring about a rapid and 

 high increase in body temperature has been demonstrated (Balcar, San- 

 sum, and Woodyatt, Woodyatt(a) ). When sugar, for instance, is injected 

 intravenously in a dog and the animal is given.no water, high fever and 

 chills soon follow. Temperatures as high as 120 F. have been obtained 

 by this method. The sugar produces diuresis, causing a lack of water in 

 the dog's body, and the fever and high temperature follow. 



Certain well known pathological conditions are associated with a loss 

 of water from the body. In fatal cases of Asiatic cholera, for example, 

 this desiccation takes place to such an extent that we may have a serum 

 loss as high as 62 per cent (Rogers). If isotonic saline be injected intra- 

 venously into such cholera patients, the fluid is immediately and com- 

 pletely lost by way of the bowel. In cases of poisoning by war gas (Under- 

 bill), there is also a pronounced loss of water from the blood and the 

 movement of water into the lungs. The pneumonia crisis in infants 

 (Lussky and Friedstein) has been shown to be accompanied by decrease 

 in body weight due to loss of water. 



Water Drinking with Meals. Beginning in 1908, a long series of 

 studies have been carried out in the writer's laboratory bearing upon the 

 question of water drinking at meal time. At the time our first study was 

 made, the consensus of medical opinion was opposed to the mid-meal 

 use of water. Oertel, who was an advocate of fluid restriction, says, "The 

 drinking of fluids with meals causes great dilution of the gastric juice, 

 retards gastric digestion, and favors the development of dyspepsia." The 

 following quotation (Carrington) will also serve to emphasize, in a 

 general way, some of the reasons why physicians were opposed to the 

 drink-ing of water with meals: 



"We can lay down the definite and certain rule that it (water) should 

 never be drunk at meals, and preferably not for at least one hour after 

 the meal has been eaten. The effect of drinking water while eating is, 

 first, to artificially moisten the food, thus hindering the normal and 

 healthful flow of saliva and the other digestive juices ; secondly, to dilute 

 the various juices to an abnormal extent ; and thirdly, to wash the food 

 elements through the stomach and into the intestines before they have 

 had time to become thoroughly liquefied and digested. The effect of this 

 upon the welfare of the whole organism can only be described as direful." 



However, if we search for experimental proof of the above statements, 

 we fail to find it, no matter how deeply we dig into the musty volumes of 

 scientific and medical libraries. In all my search I have never found a 

 single experimental fact which can rightly be interpreted as indicating 

 that the taking of water at meal time is harmful. In none of our tests 

 was water used to wash down the products of incomplete mastication ; the 



