Valdez daily prospector., 1913-03-21
FRIDAY. MARCH 2l. 1913.
THE USE AND ABUSE OF WA
 TER.

Wafer. like fire. is >n inlrrW"N- cn with legendary pr"rrpl. and has played such d big part in shaping the beliefs and >uptrSll- lions of primiIiv" peoples. That man. in nis civilized state. has found it difficult, and. in some instances. impossible, to shake oil the trammrlS of ancient beliefs.
 No sane man OF woman would deny the hygienic value of water. Water is cleansing. It is lnvIg- orating, too. \ cold shower bids the blood move on. But the pop I]ar notion that water has a cur ative value, that it must possess a hideous taste or smell in order to be worth while, or that il must come steaming hot out of the earth, a notion which costs mil lions of dollars every year in America and Europe, is, in the final analysis, a relic of the su- perstition which has persisted from time immemorial.
 Always men have feared and worshippcd what they could not explain. Cloud shadows, and ech- oes, and reflected images in streams and lakes, and the DIG lures of dreams. were ghosts be- cause men could not reason from cause to effect.
 Primitive man could not "X- plain why one spring was cool and another boiling hot: OF why one water was fresh and pleasing to 1he palate. while another was salty OF bitter and unpalatablc. and so he rrsnrtrd to the usual primitive method of interprrta- lion, and attributed this difference to supernatural agencies.
 It was the beginning of tn" common belief in the curat i've val ue of cert ain waters: and the be- lief still burdens us.
 It was the beginning. too. of our belief in tn" efficacy of med- icines. for it was tn" medicine man. or the primitive priest, wh" shaped and fixed tribal opinion with respect to the health-glNlng propcrties of hot or ill-smrlling. ill-tasting water.
 But slowly We ar" reducing the number of our basic medicines; only about six now remain, and there is respectable opinion that soon We will have but four.
 And along with this change We will come to realize that We are benefited by the rest w" get. by pure air. beautiful scenery. more regular eating and sleeping hab- it's, and not by the curative value of waters which bubble out of the earth at our favorite resorts.
 Discussing the habit of 'tak- ing the waterS' from the stand point of physician, Woods Hutchinson gives interesting and instructive impressions and nrir- ions in the February number of EverybOdy's Magazine. After ;t close study of the properties :'f waters al the most famous resorts in America and Europe, he says. there is not one of them. frrIi the weakest to the strongest. which could not be manufactured in the secluSion of your own bed room out of hydrant water, con- mon salt. a little plaster srrar"d off the wall to give the lime and plaster of Paris. and five cents worth of any laxative Sali. . If you will warm the mixture and strike an ordinary "ld-fashi"nrd sulphur match while you drink il. you will have any one of the world famous hot sulphur sprin" waters in full prrfrrIi"n.
 While conceding some merit iu the popular habil of "takinG tine waters,' Mr. Hutchinson does not hesitate to call hot springs a "humbug' SD far as the curaliN idea is concerned.
 It is an Interesting light. ihr"Wl unexpectedly on an old and cost . ly human habit, and, coming from a physician. is not without mor- al of some yallIn.--EX.