The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-09-11
Drinking at Meals.


college professor that the most foolish
thing man of intelligence can do
from worldly point of VIEWS to "butt
his brains out against popular prejudice. I"
Still sometimes we are dreadfully tempt
ed to pound our Uranium against hurt
full notion, and have never been more so
than while reading the advice so often
insisted on in the papers against drink
ing water at meal times. The chief and
most plausible argument against this
practice is that it dilutes the gastric
Juices, and delays digestion. 1t is not
often in a scientific discussion that we
can so easily as in this case appeal to the
individual consciousness of the unin-
structed reader in proof of the fallacious
character of the assumption in question.
Who that reads this has not had thou
sand proofs forced upon his attention
that water taken into the stomach re-
mains there but few seconds, is quickly
taken up by the blood vessels, and, if in
excess, almost as quickly thrown out of
the blood again through the kidneys?
Yet there is a small grain of truth in the
midst of this gross error. Large drsughts
of very cold water taken into the stomach
with the food, by chilling the stomach
during its rapid progress through the
walls of its vessels, do arrest the secre-
ton of tile digestive fluids until proper
warmth is re-established. Large
draughts, also, of tea and coffee, by the
astringency of the former, and the nerv-
inc action of the theme they both con-
tain-as we'll, also, as by the peculiar
narcotic action of cofee-derange and
hinder digestion. Alcoholics, however
diluted, have like effect.
With these limitations, we but declare
the convictions of all physioligists when
we say that full response to the calls
of thirst, at meal times as at other times,
is wise and proper. And for these rea-
sons: The sense of thirst is given to US
not only that we may keep the fluids of
the body duly supplied with solvent and
dilutent material, but also that, through
the excretory organs, all soluble often
sive substances may be quickly washed
away. In the digestive process the de-
mand for water in aid of both these
necessary purposes is urgent. In nearly
everything we eat there are soluble SUBJ
stances that are in excess, and this ex-
cess should be promptly carried out of
the system. Perhaps the most abundant
among these, usually, is the common salt
so freely taken. 1t is, however, by no
means the only one; and they all, unless
promptly removed, act as irritants. Their
action upon the stomach will in very
short time decrease and soon arrest the
flow of gastric fluids and disturb the
muscular action by which the stomach
"churns," so to speak, its contents, that
every portion may receive its due admix-
ture of digestive material. This disturb
ance of muscular action is seen at its
highest in vomiting, by which the offend
ing substance is elected summarily, to-
gether with all the contents of the organ:
Now, it is the best not to over-eat, and
it is the best to eat simple food, with as
little excess of seasoning or of objection
able elements, as possible. But under
all circumstances it is both wrong and
dangerous to give refusal to natures call
for natures remedy in such cases. Plen-
ty of drink is what is demanded, and a
free supply of fluids must be given, if
serious consequences are to be avoided.
The consequences of refusal are not all
immediate. The irritation from lack of
drink, as we'll as that from improper
drinks, becomes in time chronic, passing
to inflammation, the result of which is
dyspepsia, the symptom of which is pain.
Then for want of dilutent fluid by which
offending soluble substances are quickly
removed, these often assume insoluble
forms, and are deposited in various parts
of the body, to remain there, constant
sources of pain and danger. Gravel and
stone in the urinary organs, hillary con-
cerations in the liver, calcareous deposits
in the joints and elsewhere, and possibly
tubercular deposits in various organs,
are, we may say with much certainty,
due in some degree to a foolish fear of
water. drinking."-Carolina Farmer.