Having read over an old book written by Sir Thomas Elliot, intituled, The castle of health, he there declared from his own experience, that in the county of Cornwall, tho’ it was a very cold quarter, the poorer sort, which in his time did never, or but very seldom, drink any other drinks but water, were strong of body, and lived to a very great age. To which relation that of Sir Henry Blunt’s is very agreeable, who affirmed, in his book of travels into the Levant, (where under the Turkish government the use of wine was forbid, and where the common drink is water) that he then had a better stomach to his food, and digested it more kindly than he ever did before or since.
Digestion considered.
And in the treatise of the vanity of philosophy, written by Dr. Gideon Harvey, it is affirmed, that it is not heat that causeth a good digestion, but a proper ferment, or liquor provided by nature, to dissolve the food into a substance like unto pap made with fine flour; which dissolvent, he saith, is much depraved by hot spirituous liquors; and therefore he commends water above all other drinks to promote digestion.
Gout and Hypochondriac Melancholy.
Water-drinking is also said by Dr. Allen to be good to prevent two deplorable distempers, the gout and the hypochondriac melancholy; For, says he, the gout is generally caused by too great drinking of fermented liquors, and is never said to have assaulted any drinker of water; and he saith also, that melancholy hypochondriac is kept off longest by drinking water instead of strong drink. To which let me add, that I once knew a gouty gentleman, who, to avoid his drinking companions in London, retired to New Brentford, where I then lived; in which town, by a very temperate diet of one meal a day, and drinking only water, he lived two whole years free from pain: But being visited by one who came that way, and invited to drink but one bottle of Claret between them, he fell next day into a terrible fit of the gout, which held above a month after; of which being recovered, he by the same course continued well till I left the place, which was about a year and an half after.
Gravel.
The good properties of water are further manifested in preventing the breeding of gravel in the kidneys; for Zechias, in Consult. 17. as quoted by Salmon, affirms, that nothing so much abates the heat of the kidneys, and frees them from those recrements which cause pain in the back, one great sign of gravel, as water does; but he adviseth to drink it warm. By the use of which, he saith, the unnatural heat in time will be so extinguished, that no more of that matter causing gravel will be produced in the body. Which assertion by experience I have found to be true; for observing much gravel to be voided by me, also abundance of matter floating in the urine like bran; with a great number of recrements like cuttings of hair, some above an inch long, which substances were found in all the water that I made in above twelve months; for which I could get no remedy: I was advised to drink water, which in about half a year did entirely free me from those symptoms, which some out of ignorance imputed to witchcraft, so that from that time to this I never have been troubled with it.
Stone in the Bladder.
Water also is commended as efficacious to prevent the breeding of the stone in the bladder; for it hath been observed, that in some who have been cut for the stone, that new stones have been engendered, so that some young persons have been cut several times. Now, to prevent this, the drinking water hath been advised with success; for by this that intemperate heat in the body was abated, which did occasion the distemper. Some have advised to drink it warm, and others cold, particularly Van Heyden, a physician of Ghent in Flanders, in his book intituled, Help for the rich and poor; which, he saith, in p. 40, is sufficiently insinuated by Piso and Alexander, who assure us, that the taking a draught of cold water in the morning hath done so much good, that several, after the voiding of a stone, never had any more stones grew in them.
Stone to dissolve.