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 20 to 30 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, Berzelins, Martin, etc.; that there exists, in a healthy condition of the human body, above 80 parts in every 100 of water. In the Cheyne more than 90. In the human blood about 780 parts in every 1000. In the bile more than 900 parts in every 1000. In the urine above 930 parts in every 1000. And in the muscle or the flesh of the animal, more than 77 parts in every 100. It must therefore, be clear, that whether we consider water as an Hydroprophylactic, (a preventive) or as an Hydotherapentic, (a curative) very much depends upon a free use of it as a drink. If the human frame be, properly speaking, a hydraulic machine, (as Mead says it 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. 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 onset, 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

"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 oxfattens, and in 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; disturbance 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.

K

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 was enervating; their women, after accouchement, 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 court. 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, Brahmins, 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 irregularity of their living, both as it regards diet and exercise, yet they enjoy particularly good