it is surfeited. It may be that the liver
is out of order, having had too much to do. Abstinence from food for a
day or two, and then reducing the meals to two, taken, say, between 10
and 11, and 5 and 6 o'clock, will greatly help. Masticate the food till
it is reduced to a liquid, in this state the quantity required will be
wonderfully reduced and the work of the stomach lessened.

Water, Hot.--The frequent prescription in these papers of hot water, to
be taken often in small quantities, makes it of importance that some
explanation of its action should be given.

We see, frequently, such a thing as this: a person is confined to bed,
sick and ill; there is no desire for food, but rather a loathing at the
very idea of eating; distressing symptoms of various sorts are showing
that the work of digestion and assimilation is going on badly, if
really going on at all. The patient is started on a course of hot water
in half-teacupfuls every ten minutes. When this has gone on for perhaps
six or seven hours, he begins to be very hungry, and takes food with
relish, probably for the first time for months past. In the meantime a
greatly increased quantity of water has passed from the body one way
and another, but has all passed loaded with waste material. The breath
is loaded with carbonic acid and other impurities; the perspiration is
loaded with all that makes it differ from pure water; the urine,
especially, is loaded with waste separated from the blood and tissues
of the body. The space, so to speak, left vacant by all this washing
away of waste matter makes its emptiness felt by a call upon the
stomach to furnish fresh material. Some will say that the hot water
merely passes off by the kidneys without entering the circulation at
all. This is impossible, and facts, patent to everyone, demonstrate
that they are in error. The substances with which the water becomes
impregnated show that it has been mingled with the circulation, and the
wholesome effects produced prove that it has made itself useful.

"Hard" water, as it is called, will not do so well as "soft" water.
Distilled water is best of all. So much superior is it, indeed, that
its use cannot be too strongly insisted on. It can be had from the
druggist at twopence per quart.

Where nourishment is given with too little water, the food will often
fail almost entirely to enter the circulation. But a little warm water,
somewhat above blood heat, but not too hot, will mak