WATER-DRINKING AND HEALTH.
By G. T. Palmer, M.D.
The human body contains a complete sewerage system in which poisonous and disease-producing refuse is constantly gathering, and jeopardizing the health. The same rule which applies to municipal sanitation will also apply to personal sanitation, and the danger of disease may be forestalled by flushing out this sewerage system with an excess of water. Just as truly as the gathering of filth from the city in the "sewerage veins" endangers the lives of the inhabitants, so the poisons generated by the bodily metabolism, collected in the excretory organs, will jeopardize the lives of the millions of inhabitants of the body: the living cells. Every action of muscle or of nerve is accompanied by the destruction of cells which, if not eliminated, will accumulate like clinkers. Aside from the mere "choking of the flues," we must bear in mind that the body is constantly generating poisons, which, if eliminated freely, will do no harm; but which, retained, will be productive of disease. Such a poison is uric acid, which is charged justly with causing rheumatism, gout, constant headaches, dizziness, and a train of other symptoms, and it must be seen that if the accumulation of refuse is the cause of such conditions, the logical means of cure is its elimination. Other "products of metabolism" create their own types of disease and all may be prevented by the free use of water. A beginning of kidney trouble lies in the fact that people, especially women, do not drink enough water. They pour down tumblers of ice-water as an accompaniment to a meal, but that is worse than no water, the chill preventing digestion, and indigestion being an indirect promoter of kidney disease. A tumbler of water sipped in the morning immediately on rising, another at night, are recommended by physicians. Try to drink as little water as possible with meals, but take a glassful half an hour to an hour before eating. This rule persisted in day after day, month after month, the complexion will improve, and the general health likewise. Water drunk with meals should be sipped, as well as taken sparingly.