In colds, water is the best of all drinks to prevent floods of rheum from the nose and mouth, as my long experience testifies, and therefore will prevent coughs; for a cough will seldom succeed a cold, if water is used from the first as common drink: And if, through neglect, a cough should become troublesome, the use of water, avoiding all wine and strong drink, will contribute much to the cure. Some order the water to be drank warm, but others say, that the drinking it cold vastly excells the using it hot in a cough. It is said by Van Heydon, that some may think it strange to advise water in such diseases, which most account to proceed from crudity or indigestion; but he says, that, in any disease where the case is dangerous, the use of water is the only friend to nature; cold being a preventer rather than a cause of crudity; since by all experience it is proved to be a promoter of good digestion. And at this time I know a woman, seventy-eight years of age, who for ten years past hath had a great cough, and spit much tough phlegm, that this present winter 1722, hath been persuaded to leave off both strong and small fermented liquor, and drink only water at meals, and sometimes a dish or two of tea; and hath found herself much less subject to cough than before, and scarce coughs at all in bed, tho’ subject before to cough very much in the night: She also drinks at bed-time half a pint of cold water, and the same quantity first in the morning, and finds Heart burn. more comfort by it at so great an age, than wine hath at any time afforded, Moreover, drinking of water is a certain cure for the heart-burning; as some affirm.
Strong drinks hurtful to children.
It is generally the opinion of most physicians, that wine and strong drinks are not proper for children; and that the smaller and cooler their drink is, the better it will be with them; and that nothing conduceth more to the health of children than drinking water, which will prevent the foundation of those diseases that are caused in many by strong drink, and shew themselves in their more advanced age, wherein many also suffer much by the mother’s ill custom of making them gluttons, by constantly cramming their stomachs with food, many being thereby destroyed among the children of the rich, before they come to the years of maturity; when the children of poor country people, who fare hard, stand their ground till full grown: For fewer children die in the country than in great cities, where luxury in diet doth more abound; which is one reason why so few house-keepers in London were born in it, the great supply of inhabitants being from the country, children being brought up more hardy there than in London, where great numbers are killed by over-eating or pleasing their palates. Which mischief would be in a great measure prevented by their being accustomed to eat less, and drink water; this by experience being found to make young children free from that frowardness, which is commonly caused by a sharp, and hot, or feverish blood, which engendereth wind, and causeth pain and gripes: for there is no pain but is the consequence of heat, or inward as well as outward inflammations.
Fair water equal to that at Tunbridge.
To what hath been said may be added this consideration, that, when the best physicians are baffled by some distempers, they advise their patients to use the water of some mineral spring, tacitly acknowledging thereby, that all their prescription may be excelled by water. They pretend indeed to ascribe its effects to some minerals with which the waters are tinctured: But Dr. Baynard, in p. 438, of Sir John Floyer’s Cold bathing, tells of a certain person who used to frequent Tunbridge, by which he found much benefit; but, being hindered from going thither one season, drank the same quantity of water taken from the pump of a spring in his own yard, which did him as much service: whereupon he wrote thus upon his pump:
Steel is a cheat;
’Tis Water does the feat.
And, indeed, if we consider how many diseases and pains proceed from a sizey, thick blood, which cannot pass as it ought to do through the finest pipes that convey the blood to the parts, pure water, without minerals, drank to the quantity of a quart or three pints in a morning, will attenuate or thin the blood sufficiently: Nothing, as Boerhaave affirms, being a greater diluter of thick blood, than warm water drank in great quantity. Which to thin the blood may be best, tho’ to strengthen the stomach it is best drank cold, having the same effect inwardly, in some cases, as cold bathing hath outwardly; its use this way being also great.
Burns and Scalds.
For water I have found, by long experience, to be of excellent use in burns and scalds; for in all burns and scalds, that are slight, if the part is plunged immediately into cold water, the colder the better, the pain will instantly be taken off; and it will fetch out the fire, if continued so long as will be required to do it by any other remedy. And if the burn be so considerable, that other remedies must be applied, none of which will take off the smart of themselves in less than two or three hours; yet if you apply cold water presently, after other applications are made to the part, the pain will immediately cease, till the remedy becomes effectual: So that the ease water will give in such cases, makes it of good use. Which remedy, as it hath not been discovered till now, appears to transcend all other remedies in this case; because, in a moment, the greatest smart will eased, if the water is cold, and will be felt no more, if the part afflicted be kept immersed in it till the fire is extinguished, either by the water, or the medicine applied. Besides, it is a remedy every-where ready at hand, which cannot be said of any other; which generally requires so much time to get it ready, that much pain will be endured, if blisters do not arise, which do much increase the trouble. If the part burnt, or scalded, cannot be dipped in water, you may apply water to it, with double linen cloths dipped therein, and new dipped as they grow warm; by which means I have cured burns and scalds in the face without blistering, when applied immediately before blisters did arise.
Ulcers from burnings.