The physiology of digestion, considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / [Andrew Combe] ; edited, and adapted to the present state of physiological and chemical science, by James Coxe.

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847
Date:
1849
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of digestion, considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / [Andrew Combe] ; edited, and adapted to the present state of physiological and chemical science, by James Coxe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    193/218 (page 171)
    ral remarks will be enough. Water is a safe drink for all consti- tutions, provided it be resorted to in obedience to the dictates of natural thirst only, and not of habit, and with the precautions already pointed out: but unless the desire for it is felt, there is no occasion for its use during a meal, for the mere purpose of con- forming to a general practice. Toast and water, whey, beer, barley-water, aérated and soda water, and other li- quids of a similar kind, which are little stronger than pure water, may be used, according to the same general prin- ciple, by those who prefer them and find them agreeable to the stomach. We have already had occasion to mention that there occur at times, in baffling the best-directed treatment, yield at once to the influence of change of residence; and we then stated our opinion that the benefit thus derived is, in many instances, to be ascribed more to the change of the water which is drunk and used in cooking, than to change of air or scene. This opinion is strongly confirmed by two recent in- stances of the powerful effects which the habitual use of an impure water may produce upon the body. The town of Wolverton owes its origin to the wants of the London and North- Western Railway, and is supplied with sunk fifteen fathoms deep in a marl In 1841 the inhabitants were was soon observed that its use gave rise to a singular but unequivocal train ofsymptoms. The houses subsequently built were supplied with half canal and half well-water; but notwithstanding this arrangement, there were continual complaints, especially from persons newly come, that the water was un- healthy. Inthe meneruptions broke out over the face, hands, and neck, and the women and children were the subjects of much more distressing symptoms. From 1841 to 1847 a large number of cases were attended by the medical gentlemen of Wolverton and the neigh- bouring towns; but about the autumn of 1847, the water having become un- usually thick, yellowish, and loaded with extraneous vegetable matter, the cases increased so much in number and severity, that advice was sought in the metropolis; and accordingly, during than 110 out-patients from Wolverton, presented themselves at the Middlesex Hospital. fected with scaly eruptions of the face, neck, arms, and hands, accompanied by general disorder of the system ; but in the worst cases, principally those of adult females, there occurred constant and severe frontal headach, dizziness great prostration of strength, and other symptoms of deeply-impaired were limited to individuals who made an exclusive use of the well-water— who used partly well-water and partly ther exempt. and by whom these details are re- whole class of patients, that I do not exceed the bounds of truth when I as- sert, that, if a patient presented her- lived in, I could repeat her ailments almost word for word before I in- terrogated her.” nate of lime, with a trace of magnesia; large proportions of sulphate of soda and chloride of sodium; and smaller quantities of the alkaline carbonates), and 2-34 grains of organic matter. The quantity of foreign ingredients is thus by no means large. although suf- ficient, when the water is constantly used, to produce very serious disorder of the health. * See Pharmaceutical Journal, July 1848,