io, Missouri, or Mississippi rivers and similar localities, almost
invariably suffer from some form of gastric or intestinal disease. Water
standing in close rooms soon becomes unfit to drink and should not be
used. A drink of cold water taken on going to bed, and another on rising
are conducive to health, especially in the case of persons troubled with
constipation. "_Drink water_" said the celebrated Dubois to the young
persons who consulted him, "_drink water, I tell you!_" Du Moulin, the
great medical authority of his time, wrote, just previous to his death,
"_I leave two great physicians behind me--diet and water_."

TEA AND COFFEE. These substances are almost universally used as
beverages, and when properly employed, serve a four-fold purpose: they
quench thirst, excite an agreeable exhilaration, repress the waste of
the system, and supply nourishment. In consequence of being generally
used at meal times, their stimulant properties are employed to promote
digestion, and consequently they are not so objectionable as they might
otherwise be. The liquids introduced into the stomach at meal times
should not be cold. Tea and coffee are drunk warm, while water, except
in a few instances, is always drunk cold, the effects of which have
already been shown. That their inordinate use may be injurious no body
can deny, but this is equally true of other beverages, even pure, cold
water. Scientific investigators inform us that the use of these agents
as beverages, when judiciously employed, is not injurious. It has been
urged that they are poisonous, but if they are, they are very slow in
their operation.

When properly prepared, they are very agreeable beverages, and as man
will drink more or less at meals, they are allowable; for if their use
were excluded, some other beverage would be sought after, and quite
likely one of an alcoholic character employed, so of two evils, if this
be an evil, let us choose the least. Unlike alcoholic stimulants, they
exhilarate without a depressing reaction after their influence has
passed off. But one cup should be drunk at a meal, and it should be of
moderate strength. The use of large quantities of drink at meals retards
digestion by diluting the digestive fluids. The excessive use of large
quantities of strong tea or coffee stimulates the brain and causes
wakefulness, and produces irritability of the nervous system. When they
are productive of such effects, their use is injurious, and sho