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Medical ArticlesAction Of The Sitz-bath ExplainedThe _sitz-bath_ acts in a direct manner upon the abdominal or... Bran Poultice Get a sufficient quantity of good bran in an ordinary washhand... Deformities Of The Urinary Bladder The Operations Of Sounding For Stone Of Catheterism And Of Puncturing The Bladder Above The Pubes The urinary bladder presents two kinds of deformity--viz., co... Jaundice This disease depends upon derangement of the liver. The skin ... Pleuroscopy For Disease Most pleural diseases require a large external opening for d... Punctures Case Vii Mr. Parr, aged 30, of delicate habit, trod upon a needle whic... Children's Healthy Growth Often either the whole system or some part fails to grow prope... The Dissection Of The Oblique Or External And The Direct Or Internal Inguinal Herniae The order in which the herniary bowel takes its investments f... Trauma The chief traumatic factors in chronic laryngeal stenosis ar... Cold Affusions And Rubbing After the pack, the patient is placed in an empty bathing or ... Saltrome The disease known by this name in Canada breaks out in the han... Telephones And Telephoning MOST men--and women--use more nervous force in speaki... Toxic Disturbances And Heart Rate Under this head it is not proposed to consider disturbances... Sea-sickness The cause of this is a nervous derangement of the internal org... Asphyxia Suspended Animation Use B D current, pretty strong force. Place P. P. at back of ... Nursing Over Few vital processes are more remarkable than that by which foo... Breathing And Bronchia The bronchia are the branching small tubes which lead from the... From The Hygienic Dictionary Diagnosis. [1] In the United States, making a diagnosis impli... Neuralgia And Rheumatism Of The Heart If neuralgia, use B D current; if rheumatism, use A D. In eit... Clothing Clothing should be light yet warm, and sufficiently free so as... |
Filling The Boiler Of The Body-engineCategory: OUR DRINK Source: A Handbook Of Health The Need of Water in the Body-Engine. If you have ever taken a long railway journey, you will remember that, about every two or three hours, you would stop longer than usual at some station, or switch, for the engine to take in water. No matter how briskly the fire burns in the furnace, or how much good coal you may shovel into it, if there be no water in the boiler above it to expand and make steam, the engine will do no work. And an abundant supply of water is just as necessary in our own bodies, although not used in just the same way as in the engine. The singular thing about water, both in a locomotive and in our own bodies is that, absolutely necessary as it is, it is neither burned up nor broken down in any way, in making the machine go; so that it gives off no energy, as our food does, but simply changes its form slightly. Exactly the same amount of water, to the ounce, or even the teaspoonful, that is poured into the boiler of an engine, is given off through its funnel and escape-pipes in the form of steam; and precisely the same amount of water which we pour into our stomachs will reappear on the surface of the body again in the form of the vapor from the lungs, the perspiration from the skin, and the water from the kidneys. It goes completely through the engine, or the body, enables the one to work and the other to live, and yet comes out unchanged. Just how water works in the engine we know--the heat from the furnace changes it into steam, which means that heat expands it, or makes it fill more space. This swelling pushes forward the cylinder that starts the wheels of the engine. The next puff gives them another whirl, and in a few minutes the big locomotive is puffing steadily down the track. Water is Necessary to Life. Just how water works in the body we do not know, as most of it is not even turned into steam or vapor. But this much we do know, that life cannot exist in the absence of water. Odd as it may seem to us at first sight, ninety-five, yes, ninety-nine per cent of our body cells are water-animals, and can live and grow only when literally swimming in water. The scaly cells on the surface of our skin, our hair, and the tips of our nails are the only parts of us that live in air. In fact, over five-sixths of the weight and bulk of our bodies is made up of water. Some one has quaintly, but truthfully, described the human body as composed of a few pounds of charcoal, a bushel of air, half a peck of lime, and a couple of handfuls of salt dissolved in four buckets of water. The reason why nearly all our foods, as we have seen, contain such large amounts of water is that they, also, are the results of life--the tissues and products of plants or animals. Water Frees the Body from Waste Substances. Water in the body, then, is necessary to life itself. But another most important use is to wash out all the waste substances from the different organs and tissues and carry them to the liver, the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin, where they can be burned up and got rid of. We must keep our bodies well flushed with water, just as we should keep a free current of water flowing through our drain-pipes and sewers. It Keeps the Body from Getting Over-heated. In summer time, or in hot climates the year round, an abundant supply of water is of great importance in keeping the body from becoming overheated, by pouring itself out on the skin in the form of perspiration, and cooling us by evaporation, as we shall see in the chapter on the skin. The Meaning of Thirst. None of us who has ever been a mile or more away from a well, or brook, on a hot summer's day needs to be told how necessary water is, for comfort as well as for health. The appetite which we have developed for it--thirst, as we call it--is the most tremendous and powerful craving that we can feel, and the results of water starvation are as serious and as quick in coming as is the keenness of our thirst. Men in fairly good condition, if they are at rest, and not exposed to hardship, and have plenty of water to drink, can survive without food for from two to four weeks; but if deprived of water, they will perish in agony in from two to three days. We should Drink Three Pints of Water a Day. Although all our foods, either as we find them in the state of nature, or as they come on the table cooked and prepared for eating, contain large quantities of water, this is not enough for the needs of the body; to keep in good health we must also drink in some form about three pints, or six glassfuls, of water in the course of the day. Part of this goes, as you will remember (p. 16), to dissolve the food so that it can be readily absorbed by our body cells in the process of digestion. Next: Where Our Drinking Water Comes From Previous: Cooking
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