Water and water-supplies : and unfermented beverages / by John Attfield.

  • Attfield, John, 1835-1911.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Water and water-supplies : and unfermented beverages / by John Attfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    CONCLUSION. Animal life is maintained by aid of solid, warmth-giving, bone-producing, and flesh-forming nutritive substances, by stimulating substances, and by water ; the water being in the form either of actual water, or of the various beverages we daily imbibe. The water conveys the nutrients to all parts of the system, it similarly conveys the stimulants, and it also acts per se in keeping the tissues and organs in an elastic vital condition. The function of nutritious food is evident. The office of water, no matter in what form of beverage, is clear enough. The purpose served by stimu- lating substances is less obvious. It would seem, however, that they do the important work of aiding the system, when- ever necessary, to digest and to store up food, and to utilize its existing stores of fat and of flesh. A stimulant does some such work as this whether it belong to the tea class, as, for example, coca; the alcoholic class, as, for example, brandy ; or the clear soup class, as, for example, beef-tea. In other words, the purpose of stimulants is, apparently, to stimulate the system the better to live upon itself, and the better to replenish its store of life-sustaining, work- performing, flesh and blood. The imprisoned miner, having no food ordinarily so-called, but having stores on his own frame, is able to exist for many days if only, by a periodical sip of brandy, he can stimulate his organs to utilize those stores. Of course he daily gets thinner, the elements of his thus used flesh passing away as gases and vapours from his lungs and skin. The Indian performs a journey of two or three days on foot without any so-called food ; but he really lives and works on the flesh stored on his own frame, and lives satisfactorily if only he can chew his coca, and so obtain the stimulus that shall induce his flesh to yield so much extra force. Of course he, too, daily