St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-08-03
There is Death in the Ice-Pitcher,

The Times Democrat says: There are
doubtless few people among even the wise
of this world who know that death turks
in the ice pitcher as truly as in the wine
glass. Yet we have it from no less an
authority than the renowned physician,
DR.. William A. Hammond, of New York,
that with ice water removed from the
reach of man human life would be length
ened and existence rendered more tolera-
BILE.
The current belief is that the only thor
oughly safe drink is Adams ale, whether
it be taken with the ice accom- paniment or
without it. But no idea can be more fall
lacious, if we are to credit the observations
of DR. Hammond. "Coldwater brigades'
are death dealing brigades, and ice water
philanthropists are but fends in disguise.
Ice water, declares DR.. Hammond, is
mans act, not natures. With the Their
mometer al 80 degrees nature does not pro-
vide water at 30 Neither does nature
provide cooked food, but the learned doc
tor evidently forgot to note this in his
savage assault on the mischievous ice
pitcher But possibly there is q difference
between solids and liquids so far as ma
lures handiwork is conc, rned, and the
latter must be taken at first hand from
the Creator, while solids may be taken
second hand.
The greatest ice water drinking nation
in the world is contained within the thir-
ty- eight States of the American Union.
DR.. Hammond goes so far as to assert that
we drink more of the stuff in one year
than the rest of the world in ten Even
Norway and Sweden, where nature comes
very near providing ice water for twelve
months in the year, its use as a beverage
is almost unknown. And it must be ad-
mitted that the appetite for water of icy
GOODNESS is an acquired taste. A small
child sqs hf5under the operation of TAX
ing it's first draught, and adults can BE-
found who do not relish the icy thru
that comes from the mischievous fluid.
American Indians, natures own children,
according to DIR. Hammond, spit and wrig
gle for several minutes after they have
been induced to drink tumbler of ice
cold water, Civilization, therefore, has
brought in its train the ice pitcher evil
And like all other habts-chewing gum,
alcohol ct i'd genus 0n1ne-when once &C
quired, ice-water drinking is now assumed
to be necessity for our comfort and, IN
extreme cases, for our very existence.
The gravest danger from the "lce water
habit" if we give full credit to the
learned physician to whom wei have re-
ferred is that it may cause sudden death,
especially if INDUCED in when3 1.-THE body
is overheated. The record OF leases of
death from this cause given dSs2y IN the
press bears out this assertion. every
reader can recall an instance of the kind;
A very important part of the hervousS
system is situated Immediately behind the
stomach, and the temperature of this is so
suddenly reduced by big drink of ice
water that the action of the heart is less
ened to the extent of causing death.
Druggists and chemists, who ought to
know better, are the chief agencies to
this cold and cruel warfare against the
public health How often do we see in
flaming letters at our drug store soda
fountains the announcement ''lce cold
soda water and vichy?' "And," says Dr.
Hammond, "the colder they can make
these mixtures the more pride they take IN
themselves and the more customers flock
to their shops" Many deaths of persons
have occurred while in the very act OF
drinking these more than ice-cold liquids,
and in the learned doctors own medical
experience were two cases of obstinate
facial neuralgia lasting more than year,
due entirely to the 'ice cold soda" habit.
But it is not the heart alone that IS
attacked by the cold and icy draught;
The enamel of the teeth is cracked, and
their liability to decay thereby increased
"Americans have the worst teeth IN the
world" asserts DR.. Hammond ; 'ice- water
does it." The white, pearly, sound teeth
of the old time plantation negro, the envy
of the Caucasian, are giving way before
the savage assault of the ice pitcher, and
a generation or two hence, the beautiful
teeth that knew Sambo in his non-lce-
water DAYS will know him no more forever.
Ice wafer does all this and more. IL
impairs the sense of TASTE in induces
grastric catarrh. II is even questionaole
whether cancer of the stomach ana
Bright's disease do not follow in its wake
Indeed. of the ills that flesh is heir to, ice
water is the parent of many of the mos
fatal Truly, then, can it be sad that no.
only Gin the pot but in the pitcher, too'
when ice water is there, is there dea'h'
Happily, DR.. Hammond, who has pus
forth his views on this most important
matter in the North Am2er5c@" Re1'e@,
does not take leave of his subject Wltnour'
giving Bit of good advice. 1t is TINS
Drink no water below fifty degrees 10 ~
this and you will be hapPy-and so VIII Fl,
vour stomach, and your heart and yo'