The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-05-10
What and When to Drink.


water, but as to suggesting a practi.
cal substitute, confess to being
often in considerable difficulty owing
chiefly to peoples acquired tastes
One would premise by asking the
reader, Does he eat and drink to live,
or does he live to eat and drink? For
such as practically live in order that
they may eat and drink, | think it
matters but little in what way they
!! wear out their viScera and eXtinguish
themselves. But for refined gour-
NETS, who, while enjoying their eat
ing and drinking, as healthy people
enjoy the performance of all their
natural functions, yet eat and drink
in order to satisfy their bodies with
energy in the best way, and not as a
mere animal indulgence, the question
is one of large and practical interest.
Now such people in eating and drink
ing, should all aim to get the largest
amount of energiZing food at a mini
mum of cost and at minimum of
wear and tear to the digestive and
scavenging viscera of the body fed
But want of water is much more rap
idly and painfully fatal than want of
food. Water in the system plays the
| Pol u lIlOO, VI a OO4N CIV, OCCOuu, do d
vehicle for carrying the dissolved
food into the system, and afterward
from one part of the system to the
other in a ceaSeleSS circle of water
carriage movement; thirdly, of dis
solving out Of the tissues all effete
matters and carrying these off to the
scavenging organs, such as the lungs,
kidneys, bowels and skin. Now, in
| nhnInr1 Tuhnrn U0Ct nnnntifiac M
aqueous objections occur, the blood
becomes thick, treacly and viscid, and
all the functions of the body are OBJ
their necessity for the maintenance of
existence. First, the oxidation of
food is diminished, and the tempera-
ture of the body rapidly falls; second,
the elimination of refuse matters
other than by the bowels is diminish
ed variously, and effects, practically
of poisoning by these retained mat
tiers, takes place. Such are the vio-
the patient for hours previous to
death.
In slower forms of death from want
of water, as on shipboard or in boats
at sea, maniacal symptoms are ushered
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largely due to retention within the
blood of effected matter, which, while
the blood is adequately liquefied, are
carried off in solution by the kidneys.
| These forms of death are only eX-
IRENE developments of the appetite
for water, which we call thirst. In
quenching thirst,.it should be recol-
lected that water is the only sub
stance by which thirst can be met
and that intermiXing alcohol, coffee,
tea, etc, with water, in order to re-
lieve thirst, is mistake. Neither al
cohol NOR any other liquid will do
aught but hasten death from thirst.
Much salt in the food makes one
very thirsty. Why? Because an
excess of salt having been
taken into the blood, the
kidneys hasten to turn it out of the
system; aud turning out the salt, they
have to eliminate large quantity of
water in order to dissolve it and
carry it off; thus the blood is left too
thick, and the person feels thirsty.
Now, one reason why beer-drinkers
go back so soon and so repeatedly to
the public house is because salt is put
into the beer for them; and, taking
the effect of the salt and of the alco-
hol together, there is no doubt that
beer aggravates thirst instead of
quenching it.
Beer-drinkers imagine that abstain
ers from alcohol drink "a lot Of cold
water" But, in point of fact, it is
the beer-drinkers who drink the
slot of cold water" Any
beer-drinker who goes to the
food department of the South
| Kensington museum will there see
the constituencies of the beer all sepa-
| rated in a visible form in their proper
proportions, and he will learn that,
out Of twenty pints of beer that he
buys, nineteen are water. Nealy one
pint is alcohol, and the rest is treacly
residue, with salt and other unim-
pOrtant constituents The treacly
matter represents the food material,
or residual barley, left in the beer.
The alcohol may be partially oxidized
in the system, but its effects are chief
ly felt in taking the edge off those
sensibilities by means of which the
system is conscious of fatigue; and
large part of the alcohol is eXhaled
by the lungs and skin, as is shown by
the smell which emanateS from the
drinker.
Bee when taken at meal time by
those whose StOmachS have been
trained to look for it, provokes a Sc
erection of gastric juice, and its alco-
hol is rapidly washed out of the stom-
ach, in order that the solution of the
food may not be hindered. If strong
er alcoholic beverages are taken, such
as wine or spirit, digestion is more
completely arrested pending their re-
! moVal, and as is well known, if the
glass of wine is repeated too often,
digestion is altogether prevented, and
few hours afterward the food has to
be returned by the way it entered. In
this case it is generally said that ''the
salmon has disagreed" with the un-
! fortunate diner-out; but have gen.
orally observed that the capacity for
walking straight is as much impaired
as is the capacity for digesting food,
and, unless when wine had been
taken largely, never saw "the sal
mon" make man ill.
The habit of drinking strong tea or
black coffee directly after dinner is
especially bad, and Certainly interferes
with digestion. At breakfast time a
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and surely it is then unscientific for
him to inflict upon his system strong
tea or coffee. At "tea time" tea OF
coffee may well be INDUCED in moder-
ately; the bulk of the days work is
done; the body not only wants rinsing
out, but fatigue is felt which may
well be counteracted by the use of a
mild stimulant, such as tea; and bed
time is not yet so near that sleep is
thereby interfered with. Most ma
lions that drink coffee largely get a
sallow skin: and 1 am inclined to
think that the carbonaceous matter
of the roasted coffee, when so largely
and frequently taken, may perhaps
have something to do with this. For
hard-working people who are not cor
pulent, I should suggest the thick
flake cocoa as the healthiest and most
nutritious breakfast beverage.
For those who do not want fatten-
ing drinks, and who often cannot di-
geSt cocoa, should say drink hot wa
ter at breakfast. Those who dine
late and make their dinner their main
meal, need diluent drink an hour or
two afterwards, and if they drink tea
it keeps them awake or makes
them irritable and nervous l
find for myself that dining
solidly as l am obliged to do when l
have done my work 7:30 p. m.), and
often needing to work from nine to
eleven, a tumbler of hot water
brought into my study or laboratory
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