CHAPTER VII.

ON LIQUID FOOD.

A mode of life conformable with nature will admit of no other beverage than pure cold water, ordained by her as the common drink for all mankind. To the present. day, this law of nature is renounced by the folly, ignorance, aversion, prejudice, and superstition of man. Whenever the voice of nature makes itself heard, it is soon silenced by our sensuality, inclinations, and passions. Many, again, are deficient in sound judgment, or the necessary strength of mind to lay down a prejudice occasionally supported by medical men. There are, moreover, a number of persons, enemies to water from the most improper motives. But all these circumstances are insufficient to conceal the inestimable properties of cold water from quiet and deliberate reason. By the force of conviction, in fact, to which prejudice must yield, correct ideas of the activity of cold water have already gained ground; and we need now no longer doubt their ultimate triumph.-WEISS.

NEXT to air, liquid food is essential for the support of life; without it no person can exist for any space of time, though instances are not wanting of individuals who have lived long without solid food. We have known several persons living from twenty to thirty days on nothing but cold water. And when we consider how greatly the fluids exceed the solids in the composition of the human body, it has often astonished us that no more attention has been paid to it. It is calculated, by Mead, Keil, Prout, M. le Can, Berzelius, Martin, etc., that there exists, in a healthy condition of the human body, above eighty parts in every one hundred of water-in the chyme more than ninety; in the human blood about seven hundred and eighty parts in every one thousand; in the bile more than nine hundred parts in every one thousand; in the urine above nine hundred and thirty parts in every one thousand; and in the muscle, or the flesh of the animal, more than seventy-seven parts in every one hundred. It must, therefore, be clear, that whether we consider water as an hydroprophylactic (a preventive), or as an hydrotherapeutic (a curative), very much de

it

pends upon a free use of it as a drink. If the human frame be, properly speaking, an hydraulic machine (as Mead says is), contrived with the most exquisite art, in which there are numberless tubes, properly adjusted and disposed, for conveying the fluids to its various parts, it is evident that liquid food is necessary to replace fluids which the body is constantly losing, by perspiration and other means. The time of taking, and also the quantity needed, are indicated by thirst, when the body is in health. Water should be taken, also, at every meal, for the purpose of assisting digestion. (See Appendix, K.) Hence, those who drink little complain of indigestion. It is necessary as a vehicle to convey our solid food from the stomach into all the different parts of the body, in a liquid state; to keep the blood in a sufficient state of fluidity to be circulated throughout the smaller vessels; to wash and carry off the saline particles which are constantly accumulating in the body; to clear away the impurities of the blood; to promote the necessary secretions, such as bile, etc.; and to keep the body in a due state of temperature. The liquids in common use are, chiefly, water and milk (which are nature's beverages), tea, coffee, intoxicating drinks, etc. (which are compounded by art). We shall proceed to make a few observations on each of them, observing, in the outset, that art cannot improve upon the production of infinite goodness and wisdom. In support of this, a host of first-rate medical and other authorities might be quoted. We shall give a few, as a sample. Milton says-

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"O madness! to think the use of strongest wines,

And strongest drink, our chief support of health,

When God, with these forbidden, made choice to war,

His mighty champion, strong above compare,

Whose drink was only from the limpid brook."

No creature besides man seeks artificial liquids, either as a beverage or as a medicine. The brute creation, when thirsty, repair to the brook to quench their thirst, and, when wounded, to assuage their pain. This is the beverage on which the ox fattens, and on which the horse and the elephant grow strong.

Man only despises it, though he has seen his predecessors pay the penalty, in diseased bodies, tortured minds, and early death. These, however, are only modern and partial evils; for history informs us that, in the remotest ages of antiquity, water served as the exclusive beverage of man, and as the sole purifier of his skin, etc. It was the chief remedy which the intuitive instinct of man suggested to him, in all prevalent diseases; and as long as he was acquainted with no other remedy for those purposes, and his life was in accordance with nature, he remained healthy and strong, and attained to longevity. With the progress of time, artificial, mostly warm, beverages and baths, and stimulating food, mostly flattering to the palate, assumed the place of cold water and vegetable food; and the consequences of this luxurious mode of life soon made their appearance. Debility and diseases, of all kinds, now superseded the sense of health, strength, and comfort, which was experienced before. The irritability of the nervous system was augmented; disturbances of the digestive organs, of all the functions of the mind, and of the whole animal economy, were created. Medical men had recourse to stimulating and poisonous drugs, etc., for the purpose of removing those evils, and repairing the shattered systems of their fellow-men. This was only a further encroachment upon nature, and, consequently, proved inadequate to the purpose. Age succeeded to age, and school to school. Many new systems of treating disease, etc., rose, flourished, and fell, because none answered the necessities of the people. Error made way for error, in the practice of drugging, as man departed from the laws of nature; and thus the multitude lay neglected; and, with few exceptions, their progress to the grave was even facilitated by the very means which were used, professedly, to heal and cure them. Happily, there have been, in all ages, a few thinking, independent men, who have dared to think and act for themselves, and who have sought to recall the use of cold water as a beverage, and also as a medicine, from the disuse into which it had fallen, and to lead mankind back to original and natural

modes of life.

Many of these having left their record behind them, we beg to refer the reader to a few of them, which bear more particularly upon water as a beverage, and as a preventive of disease.

Pindar says, "The best thing is water, and the next gold." Pythagoras strongly recommended the use of cold water to his disciples, to fortify both their body and mind. The Macedonians considered warm water as enervating; their women, after accouchment, were washed in cold water. Virgil called the ancient inhabitants of Italy a race of men hard and austere, who immersed their newly born children in the rivers, and accustomed them to cold water. Charlemagne, aware of the salubrity of cold bathing, encouraged its use throughout his empire, and introduced swimming as an amusement at his

Dr. Floyer published a work on this subject, 1702; from which period to 1722, it went through six editions in London. Dr. Hancock, in 1772, published an anti-fever treatise, on the use of cold water, which went through seven editions in one year. But the merit of settling the use of cold water on a just principle, belongs to our own countryman, Currie, whose work, published in 1797, upon the efficacy of water, may be considered the scientific base of hydropathy. Tissot, in his " Advice to the People," published in Paris, 1797, shows the importance of cold water. Under the head of Facts and Figures," chap. iii., reference was made to the Greeks, Romans, Circassians, New Zealanders, American Indians, Bramins, the natives of Scotland, and of Sierre Leone, etc., as remarkable for their health and longevity, chiefly as the result of their free use of water. To these might have been added the Turks, who as Slade remarks in his excellent work, "Records of the East," that notwithstanding their ignorance of medical skill, added to the extreme irrregularity of their living, both as it regards diet and exercise, yet they enjoy particularly good health, and he says this anomaly is owing ta two causes: first, the religious necessity of washing their arms feet, and necks, from three to five times a day, always with

cold water; secondly, by their constant use of the vapor bath; gout, rheumatism, headache, and consumption are unknown in Turkey. In England, nature is known only by name, and till the eyes of many were opened by the diffusion of temperance truth, none but those who were reduced to the last stage of poverty, ever thought of satisfying their thirst with water. Still, even now, there are very few who have carried their principles out in all their legitimate bearings. And perhaps the greatest hindrances in the way of its more extensive use as a beverage, is, it costs us nothing. Make things cheap, and they are almost sure to be despised. In our artificial state, we do not esteem things according to their real worth. And it is more than probable that hundreds, who now have as great an aversion to water as a mad dog has, would use it more fully, and would take more exercise in the open air, if these blessings were not also enjoyed by the working classes. This was not the case in England formerly; for Dr. Henry, in his "History of England," says, "The ancient Britons were noted for being swift of foot, having fine athletic frames, and great strength of body; their only drink was water." Mr. Raspail, in his twelve lectures on the physiology of health and disease, reported in the "Medical Times" of September 9, 1843, says, In the state of nature, pure water is the best drink for every living being-the most delightful of all beverages." And the reason why it is not generally so regarded, is because we have departed from the simplicity of

nature.

The celebrated John Wesley, that keen observer of men and things, published a work in 1747, called "Primitive Physic,' (a most significant title) which has gone through near 100 editions, and is still extensively used. He recommends cold water internally and externally, both as a preventive and cure of disease. Webb, the noted pedestrian, remarkable for vigor of mind and body, was exclusively a water drinker. Cobbett, who in some respects was as great as he was singular, bears the following testimony to the benefit of water drinking, men

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