The uses of water in health and disease

by John Harvey Kellogg

1. As a diluent;

2. By its solvent properties;

3. By modifying the general or local temperature of the body.

1. Water as a Diluent.—Water is received into the system by absorption, either through a mucous membrane, or through the skin. It usually enters through the medium of the stomach and intestinal canal. When received into the blood, it of course increases its volume, and produces an increased fullness of the circulatory vessels, which are never distended to their fullest extent, and hence allow room for change in the volume of their contents. The blood is necessarily rendered more fluid, and if previously in any degree viscid, its circulation is quickened by its dilution.

2. The Effects of the Solvent Properties of Water.—With the exception of air, water is the most transient of all the elements received into the body. It is eliminated by the skin, the lungs, the kidneys, and the intestines. By its solvent action, it dissolves the various poisonous products of the disintegration of the tissues. The volume of the blood being increased, more water comes in contact with the debris contained in any part, and, in consequence, the same undesirable products are more perfectly removed. The increased amount of excrementitious matter in solution is brought in contact with the various depurating organs, producing, notably, the following results:—

a. An increase of the urinary excretion. It is an important fact that this increase does not consist in the addition of water merely, or dilution, but that there is also an increased amount of urea, the chief excrementitious principle removed from the blood by the kidneys.

b. An increase in the cutaneous excretion. Water-drinking is one of the most efficient means of producing copious perspiration, which, as with the urinary excretion, is not a mere elimination of water, but is a real depurating process.

c. Increased action of the intestinal mucous membrane. Elimination from the mucous membrane of the intestinal track, which is an important organ of excretion, is also increased by drinking freely of pure water. The result of this increased action is not only to remove from the blood some of its foulest constituents, but to render more fluid the contents of the intestines, and thus tend to obviate that almost universal accompaniment of sedentary habits, constipation.

The removal of clogging matters from the system in this manner allows greater freedom of vital action, so that the activities of the body are quickened, and both waste and repair, disintegration and assimilation, are accelerated.

The use of water thus hastens all the vital processes by increasing the change of tissue. This result is of course chiefly obtained by employing it as a drink. The experiments of Liebig fully confirm this view. He expressly mentions the free use of water as one of the means of accelerating vital change. Prof. John B. Biddle, M. D., in his “Materia Medica,” states that “it promotes both the metamorphosis and construction of tissue,” from which fact he attributes to it valuable curative properties, as an alterative, when the removal of a morbid taint is desired, as in certain venereal diseases.