How about adults? Most green vegetables and fresh fruits contain a higher percentage of water than the adult body. If the diet contains an abundance of these foods little or no additional water will be required.

Dr. Lamb, of England, took the position that man is not by nature a drinking animal. Dr. Alcott and others of the vegetarian school proved by direct experiments that those who adopt an exclusively vegetable regimen and make a large proportion of their diet consist of juicy fruits and succulent vegetables can be healthfully sustained and nourished without water-drinking. Sophie Lepel, of England, also condemned the use of water.

If the fertilized ovum of some sea animal is placed in tap water and watched, its weight will increase to as much as a thousand times the original. The ovum develops despite the entire absence of all other nutrients except water. Obviously such growth is not normal and the cells formed under such conditions are deficient and weak. Growth of this kind can occur only within narrow limits and the water-logged cells are far from ideal.

Super-saturation of the protoplasm of plants submerged in water weakens and even kills them. Excesses of water produce rank, watery vegetation, while prolonged standing in water will kill most vegetation more surely than a drought.

If a sufficient amount of water is forced into man or animal it will produce all the symptoms of alcoholic intoxication. Nothing is to be gained by excessive water drinking at any time. Excessive water drinking tends to water-log man's tissues and fluids and to lessen the vitality of his cells. The power of the blood to absorb and carry oxygen is lowered and the body is weakened. One sweats more when he drinks more, but excessive transpiration is weakening. Observation will readily show that those who suffer most from the summer's heat are the ones who drink the most water. We naturally conclude that they drink more because the heat causes great thirst. If these individuals can be induced to drink less, their sweating will decrease, thus showing that the excessive drinking was largely responsible for the sweating.

I do not believe that a small excess of water is particularly harmful, but I believe that the safest rule about drinking is: drink as little as thirst demands. A false thirst induced by salt or some other irritant, is not to be "satisfied."

I have never been able to find any sound reason why we should deliberately drink a certain number of glasses of water a day just because somebody has arbitrarily decided that we require that much water. I know of no sound reason why we should take water in the absence of real physiological need for water, as expressed in genuine thirst. I am fully convinced from my own observations and experiments that there are many people who are injuring themselves by drinking too much water.

Dr. Trall severely condemned the "indiscriminate practice of large water-drinking" and said, "I have seen not a little mischief result from it." Drs. Shew, Cully, Johnson, Wilson and Rausse, of the hydropathic school, severely and justly repudiated the extravagant recommendation of large water-drinking contained in many works on water-cure. Dr. Tilden, though, like the author, once an advocate of much water-drinking, has for several years past condemned the practice. The late Dr. Lindlahr did not favor the practice.

Shall we, then, affirm that all the water should be taken that instinct calls for? If so, how much does instinct call for? What is an instinctive call for water? How much of our present thirst is due to habit? How much to irritation? What part is normal? Is an abnormal thirst any better guide than an abnormal appetite?

Water drinking can become a habit like any other thing we do. Those who cultivate drinking large quantities of water will feel a "need" for much water. On the other hand, eating salt, spices, condiments, greasy dishes, concentrated foods, meats, eggs, cheese, sugar, starches, etc., creates an irritation that is usually mistaken for thirst. But water will not ally such a "thirst." One may inundate his stomach with water every five minutes and still be "thirsty." If he will refrain from drinking he will find that his supposed thirst will be satisfied much sooner. It is argued that people turn to strong drink because water will not allay such "thirst." Perhaps it is often true. If the supposed thirst is endured it will be satisfied with the normal secretions and this almost irresistable desire for water will pass away. On the other hand, if water is taken, these secretions are not used to allay the "thirst," while the water, upon leaving the stomach, carries the secretions that are there along with it.

Those who seek to do the body's work for it and are afraid of letting it do its own work in its own way will object to permitting these secretions to be used for this purpose and will maintain that it robs the system of that much water. The objection is unsound from first to last. The secretions can satisfy the "thirst" while water will not. Besides this the secretions will prevent putrefaction and fermentation in the digestive tract while water will favor these very processes. Lastly, the secretions are not lost to the body, but are reabsorbed.

Would we say to the glutton: Eat all your appetite calls for; or to the satyr and nymphomaniac; Indulge as much as your desires command? If not, then, why shall we say to the man of perverted thirst: Drink all your thirst calls for? Such advise could be beneficial only where thirst is normal.

How much should one drink? I don't know. How much should one eat, or breathe, or sleep? You answer--"All that nature calls for." Suppose we say the same in regard to water drinking--how much does nature call for? This will depend on a number of circumstances and conditions, such as; the amount and character of food eaten, amount and character of work performed, climate, age, sex, etc.

No hard and fast rules can be set down in this matter. The intelligent person will not attempt it. It is often stated that our bodies require a certain minimum of water daily. This is doubtless true, but it by no means follows that we should always drink this amount. We may get two-thirds or all of this amount in our diet.