The proper temperature for drinking water is a matter of some interest. In many cases physicians advise the use of hot water or warm water, especially in the morning before breakfast. This is doubtless at times advantageous. There is no hygienic objection to drinking warm or even hot water, if not hot enough to produce any pain or injury. There is a natural tendency in man to prefer cool water, especially when thirsty and in hot weather. Before the invention of the methods of preserving ice this natural taste of man was gratified by the natural refreshing coolness of the water at its source. Many springs and wells, even in the hottest summer, give water of rather low temperature. With the advent of the modern "ice age," which furnishes even to those in most moderate circumstances plenty of ice during the hot months, the habit of drinking water ice-cold has come into general use. This habit should be avoided or restricted and the people should learn to drink water at its natural temperature as furnished by the spring or well. I should strongly advise against the drinking of water, especially in hot weather, at a temperature lower than 5o°F. Temperatures of 550, 6o° and 650 are agreeable and even refreshing, and these can be obtained either at the natural source or by judicious cooling. The addition of ice directly to water should never be practised. It makes the water too cold and invites infection. Ice is often cut from rivers and ponds and is found to carry very often more germs and more dangerous germs than the water from which it is taken. The reason of this is that the ice may collect debris from those who pass over it before and during cutting and thus contain more germs than the natural water from which it was formed. The chief objection to drinking ice-cold water is in the sudden chill which it gives to the coats of the stomach, which cannot be otherwise than injurious. The matter is well put in these verses:

"Full many a man both young and old

Has gone to his sarcophagus, By pouring water icy cold

Adown his hot esophagus."