51 



stood, and since it has been ascertained that alvine 

 evacuations are seldom proportioned to the quantity 

 of ingested water, they have less insisted upon the 

 necessity of immoderate drinking, and patients are 

 in general desired not to overpass that degree of 

 saturation, which borders on reluctance. Prodigious 

 deeds are told of our vigorous ancestors, and good 

 folks are inclined to consider the present moderate 

 dose of seven or eight goblets , as a proof of the 

 degeneracy of our species, of which Juvenal com- 

 plained , about two thousand years ago , as having 

 already commenced in Homer's time : 



iVrtwi genus hoc vivo jam decrescelat Homero; 

 Terra inalos homines mine cducat attjue pusiUos. 



The fact is that patients offer very different capa- 

 cities of swallowing and digesting mineral waters, as 

 gluttons and drunkards beat sober people in eating, 

 and in drinking wine or beer 5 and that we still see 

 at Carlsbad individuals who would astonish their 

 forefathers, if they saw them taking from thirty to 

 fifty goblets as a daily portion. Such drinkers are 

 rare , but they exist [Almanack for 1833 , ch. IV). 

 The capacity of our beakers being, since the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, exactly the same (six 

 ounces), our present observations are far more accu- 

 rate than those of our predecessors, whose patients 

 came to the wells, or drank at home, with all sorts 

 of cups , so that we scarcely know now , when we 

 read ancient authors, the size of their poctUa, cyathi, 



