liable to excess. Children
can be trained to love milk and water sweetened with sugar, so that it
will always be a pleasant beverage; or, if there are exceptions to the
rule, they will be few. Water is an unfailing resort. Every one loves
it, and it is perfectly healthful.

The impression, common in this Country, that _warm drinks_, especially
in Winter, are more healthful than cold, is not warranted by any
experience, nor by the laws of the physical system. At dinner, cold
drinks are universal, and no one deems them injurious. It is only at the
other two meals that they are supposed to be hurtful.

There is no doubt that _warm_ drinks are healthful, and more agreeable
than cold, at certain times and seasons; but it is equally true, that
drinks above blood heat are not healthful. If any person should hold a
finger in hot water, for a considerable time, twice every day, it would
be found that the finger would gradually grow weaker. The frequent
application of the stimulus of heat, like all other stimulants,
eventually causes debility. If, therefore, a person is in the habit of
drinking hot drinks, twice a day, the teeth, throat, and stomach are
gradually debilitated. This, most probably, is one of the causes of an
early decay of the teeth, which is observed to be much more common among
American ladies, than among those in European countries.

It has been stated to the writer, by an intelligent traveller, who had
visited Mexico, that it was rare to meet an individual with even a
tolerable set of teeth; and that almost every grown person, he met in
the street, had merely remnants of teeth. On inquiry into the customs
of the Country, it was found, that it was the universal practice to take
their usual beverage at almost the boiling point; and this, doubtless,
was the chief cause of the almost entire want of teeth in that Country.
In the United States, it cannot be doubted that much evil is done, in
this way, by hot drinks. Most tea-drinkers consider tea as ruined, if it
stands until it reaches the healthful temperature for drink.

The following extract from Dr. Andrew Combe, presents the opinion of
most intelligent medical men on this subject.[G]

"_Water_ is a safe drink for all constitutions, provided it be resorted
to in obedience to the dictates of natural thirst, only, and not of
habit. Unless the desire for it is felt, there is no occasion for its
use during a meal."

"The primary effect of all distilled and fer