The curiosities of common water: or the advantages thereof in preventing and curing many distempers. Gather'd from the writings of several eminent physicians, and also from more than forty years' experience. To which are added, some rules for preserving health by diet / By John Smith.

  • Smith, John, 1647 or 1648-1727?
Date:
1740
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The curiosities of common water: or the advantages thereof in preventing and curing many distempers. Gather'd from the writings of several eminent physicians, and also from more than forty years' experience. To which are added, some rules for preserving health by diet / By John Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ( <5 ) W Dinner it helps Digeflion.■■——And, If the Vir¬ tues of cold Water were ferioufly confidered, all Per¬ form would value it as a great Medicine, in preventing the Stone, Afthma and Hyfieric Fits; and to the Ufe of this, Children ought to he bred up prom their Cradles. And, in Fage 434. he faith. That as Water Is in chief the univerfal Drink of the World——* fo it is the heft, and mod faluhrious. And, in Fage 434. That he hath known where a regular Drinking of Spring-Water hath done confiderable Cures by walking off the acrid, fcorhutick Salts from the Elood, and ftrengthning the Coats and Fibers of the Stomach and Bowels, and hath brought on a good Appetite, and a ftrong Digeflion, And I add. That it will infallibly do it in all curable Cafes. cold Wafer Having read over an old Book written by Sir Tho- firevgthen-mas Llioty intituled. The Cafile of Health, he there declared from his own Experience, That in the Coun¬ ty of Cornwall, tho’ it was a very cold Quarter, the poorer Sort, which in his Time did never or but very feldom drink any other Drinks but Water, were ftrong of Body, and lived to a very great Age. To which Relation that of Sir Henry Blunt is very agreeable, who affirmed in his Book of Travels into the Levant, (where under the Turkifh Government the Ufe of Wine was forbid, and where the common Drink is Water) that he then had a better Stomach to his Food, and digefbed it more kindly than he ever dkJ before or fince. Digefiion And in the Treatife of the Vanity of Fhilofophy, twjidered. Written by Dr. Gideon Harvey, it is affirmed. That it is not Heat thatcaufeth a good Digeflion, but a pro¬ per Ferment, or Liquor provided by Nature, to dif« folve the Food into a Subfiance Itke^into Pap made with fine Flour; which Diflolvent, he faith, is much depraved by hot fpiritous Liquors ; and therefore he commends Water above all other Drinks to promote - Digeflion. “ Water-drinking isalfo faid by Dr. Allen to be good dnac jjfe. t0 prevent two deplorable Diftempers, the Gout and lanchoh\ the /