Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-21
DAILY HERALD
DEADLY ICE WATER.
Ex Surgeon General Ham
mOnd Against Its Use.
THOROUGHLY AMERICAN HABIT.
1t Kills the Appetite-Pr0mOtes Dys-
pepsia-and Causes General De-
rangement of the System.

-
Accum to the people Of England, in hit
diatribe against dram-drinking. The
words fell with startling force upon those
in high and low places, and set up
train of inquiry which nothing but somt
short and terrible invective like his
could have excited. Artists and manu-
facturers took up his idea and repro
duced it on canvas and in almost every
plastic material used for decoration OF
domestic purposes. Preachers an
nounced it from their pulpits and drew
fearful pictures of its appositeness
and, if we are to believe the assertions
made at the time, many habitual
drunkards were saved from wretched
life and g still more wretched death by
being frightened into sobriety. Argu-
ments would have been useless with
such people, but grinning skull look
ing over the edge OF ne-glass, or a
skeleton clasping decanter in his bony
hands, or snake coiled around the
stem Of goblet, caused them to pause
as they grasped the poisoned chalice,
and to shrink back in terror as they
dashed the death.giving vessel to the
ground. Many Englishmen renounced
their gin and took to tea instead, being
further told that it was the coup that
cheers, but not inebriates."
The notion seems to be prevalent that
in order more effectually to reform u
drunkard bis stomach must be drenched
with water, and especially ice-water.
This idea originated in the United States,
nd ha oAt1ollyy cnrppH fn (IraQt 4
Britain and Ireland and their de-
tendencies. The result is that "cold-
water brigades" and "ice-water brig
AIDES" have been formed in almost every
country where the English language is
spoken. Tea.drinking, which received
so great an impetus from Mr.. Accum' g
expressive words, is rapidly giving way
before ice-water drinking. Philanthropic
individuals combine and raise money to
establish ice-water fountains in the most
populous parts OF our large cities, and
the people are told to shun the liquor
saloon and the beer celler, and to quaff
the refreshing liquor that nature sup
plies. These good people forget that the
ice they put into the water, to make it,
as they suppose, more fit for the wants
of the human system, is their act and
not Natures. have heard OF one re-
pentant distiller who on his deathbed,
thinking thereby to atone for the de-
struction to those who had imbibed his
whisky, appended codicil to his will by
which considerable sum OF money was
set apart, the interest of which was for
ever to be devoted to supplying ice-water
to all who should apply at the tail of a
cart that was to be especially fitted up
for the purpose, and to be driven through
the streets. Probably more were killed
by his whisky than by his ice-water, but
that the latter had its victims there can
be re doubt.
1t is certainly true that more ice.water
is drunk in the United States in one year
than in all the rest of the world in ten.
This fact is in part due to the facility
with which ice can be obtained, and the
comparatively low price at which it is
sold; but our national craving for ice
water cannot be altogether the result Of
its cheapness, for we find that in Norway
and Sweden, and in the high regions OF
India, South America and Switzerland,
ice.water as beverage is almost un-
known. Certainly, SO far as the appetite
is concerned, it is the result OF education.
Young children, or adults not accustomed
to drinking ice-water, find it at first not
only unpleasant, but positively painful.
Infants shudder when it is at first put
into their mouths, and | have seen
American Indians spit and squirm for
several minutes after they had
been induced to drink tumbler
of ice-cold water; but persistency in this,
as in most matters of food or drink, al
most invariably conquers, just as it does
with tobacco or alcohol and many other
things, which, originally being repulsive,
finally become almost indispensable to
the comfort or the Fictitious demands Of
system. There must be something in
herent in the American organism which
prompts to the formation of the habit,
lust as there is an inborn tendency in
ns to indulge in the use of chewing
gum" hot, eodden bread, and indigest-
ible pies. If the proclivity were an in
nocent one there would not be much to
say against it; that it is extremely harm
full is not matter for doubt.
In the first place it may cause sudden
death, especially if INDUCED in when the
body is overheated. A very important
part OF the nervous system, called the
solar plexus, is situated Immediately
behind the stomach. A severe blow in
Aicted on the body just over this part of
the sympathetic system of nerves will
cause death with as great rapidity as will
stab in the heart. Many so-called man
has killed his wife by kicking her in the
stomach II is not the injury to this
organ that produces instantaneous death 4,
but the shock which is given the solar
plexus, and through it to the heart. A
big drink of ice water reduces the tenn
perature of the solar plexus 30 suddenly
that the action of the heart is greatly
lessened, sometimes to such an extent as
to cause instant death. 1t is quite COM
mon for persons to feel faint and become
pale Immediately after drinking glass
of ice water. They attribute these effects
to heat or over.eXertion, or to some
cher cause which has nothing
to do with the result, not knowing
that they have 30 weakened the heart as
to prevent its sending a due amount ol
blood to the lungs and brain, and that,
had the water been little colder, life
would possibly have been extinguished
altogether. Direct experiments with
Instruments especially devised for the
nurpose of measuring the force of the
hearts pulsations, establish the fact that
there is no agent Of the, materia medica
more powerful with some persons as
deprsssaut OF this organ than Large
draught of ice-water. Under certain Cir,
cumstances it acts with all the force and
rapidity of prussic acid.
The people who do the most harm II
;,,t th;a onH aOnnfrV q