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through with the water. Many eminent chemists and scientists have testified to the truth of these statements.

While water laden with the germs of disease and the poisonous substances called toxines produced by them, and decomposing animal and vegetable matters, poisons the system and produces typhoid and other fevers, and many acute intestinal and other diseases, and causes the sudden death of thousands, the mineral elements contained in the water we drink, and in that which is used in preparing our food, are far more disastrous to health and life, but, being much slower in their action, are consequently unrecognized and unthought of.

A French physiologist has truly said:

"A man is as old as his arteries."

Please remember this, for it is very important, "A man is as old as his arteries." What makes our arteries old? Young, healthy blood-vessels are very elastic and allow the blood to circulate freely through them. In old age they become hard and unyielding, their capacity is diminished, and the blood stream becomes smaller and moves with less rapidity. These changes are caused by the deposit within the walls of the blood-vessels of fibrinous and gelatinous substances, and of lime and other earthy compounds contained in the water taken into the system in food and drink. This deposit is liable to take place in the dense structures of any of the joints, in the tendons and muscles; in short, wherever the blood circulates, which, of course, is in every organ and tissue of the body, in the heart, the lungs, the digestive organs, the various organs of secretion and excretion, the brain and nervous system, etc., producing various diseased conditions, impairing the action of one and all, and hastening the time when the human machine will cease to act and the spirit take its departure.

The following from Dr. C. W. De Lacy Evans, the noted author, physician and surgeon, of London, states the case truly and forcibly:

"The combinations of lime held in solution in the water we drink, when taken into the stomach, are soon distributed throughout the system and deposited in all the tissues, exactly as they are precipitated and form incrustations on the bottoms of kettles in which water is boiled. The result is general induration, partial, and often, in some organs and tissues, complete ossification. The bones become brittle, the joints and muscles stiff and rheumatic; gravel and stones form in the bladder; the kidneys, liver, heart,

nerves and brain become indurated and sluggish in their action; all the bodily functions are impaired; the nerves weaken, the mind loses its vigor, the memory fails, and senility and death creep on.” The evil influences of hard and mineral waters are, therefore, chief producing causes of the conditions that constitute old age as well as many of the more serious diseases of mankind, and demand the earnest consideration of every one who desires health, activity and length of days.

It is a common idea among the people that the minerals contained in spring and other waters are necessary to properly nourish the body, but chemists and physiologists know that inorganic minerals, such as are contained in water, cannot be assimilated and used, but must be removed from the body or remain to obstruct and impair vital action. A volume could be filled with scientific testimony as to the truth of these statements in regard to minerals in water.

Our food contains, in organized forms suitable for immediate use, all the minerals necessary for the needs of the body.

All city supply waters, and all spring and well waters, necessarily and inevitably contain more or less of these inorganic minerals and earthy matters in solution, and are objectionable in proportion to the quantity present. The purest are the best, but the purest are not good enough. The purest spring waters, and the most popular ones, are those which come nearest in analysis to distilled water.

Some of the so-called spring waters sold in this city are nothing but city water which has been passed through ordinary, improperly cared-for filters. This I personally know to be a fact.

The presence of organic and inorganic impurities in the spring waters sold in this and other cities is a matter which demands the serious consideration of the boards of health of such cities. In the last annual report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station the result of the analysis of twenty-four spring waters, sold in the State and elsewhere, showed that fourteen of them were unsafe and unfit for use on account of organic contaminations alone. The report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health gives the analysis of forty-five spring waters sold in that State, which showed that thirty-four of them contained the waste organic products of human or animal contamination, or, in other words, filtered sewage. The spring waters of Massachusetts and Connecticut are probably no worse than those of other States. No dependence whatever can be placed upon the quality of

spring waters. They may be comparatively good at one time, and very bad at another. The amount of organic and mineral matter which they contain varies with the season of the year, with the amount of rainfall, and many other changing conditions.

Distilled Water the Purest and Best.

The purest and best and the only absolutely safe water to use for drinking and the preparation of all foods and artificial drinks is that produced by distillation. There are many processes of distillation, but the most imperfect one produces a water far superior in purity and healthfulness to the very best spring waters under their most favorable conditions. The nearest approach to it in purity is rain water, which is distilled water of Nature's own production, when collected on clean surfaces, in uninhabited sections, where the air is pure and uncontaminated by smoke, dust, city and factory gases, etc.

I wish to correct a quite general impression that boiled water and distilled water are practically the same. In boiling, the steam, the pure part, passes into the air and is lost, while all the impurities are left behind and condensed in the boiled water; while in distillation the pure steam, being freed from the impurities of the water, is condensed into liquid form again, giving a pure and wholesome water.

But some will say distilled water has a flat, insipid, disagreeable taste. This is true of distilled water produced by the old processes of distillation, which do not get rid of the ammonia and other gases which in boiling pass off in the steam.

The most modern and perfect process of distillation not only eliminates these gases, but, to assure a perfect product, redistills the distilled and purified water, giving double distillation and an absolutely pure and palatable water for drinking, cooking and many other uses in the household, and in the arts and manufacUnlike all spring and city waters, double distilled water is always uniform in quality and always pure.

Pure water is colorless and odorless. Any water, be it distilled or not, that has the slightest disagreeable taste, color or smell, is more or less impure and unsafe to use.

Distilled Water a Great Solvent.

The great value of distilled water, aside from its purity and palatableness, is its great solvent power, and the property of absorbing any impurities with which it comes in contact. "The Cen

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tury Dictionary" says: "Of all liquids, distilled water is the most powerful and general solvent."

Nature's distilled water, in the form of rain, percolates through the earth, and in its course dissolves and absorbs various organic and inorganic substances with which it comes in contact, thus rendering it impure. In the same way distilled water taken into the body in food or as drink, circulates through the minutest parts of the system and dissolves, absorbs and carries with it out of the body the unused and waste organic and mineral matters that poison and injure the system. In this way it purifies the blood and tissues, washing away the urea, uric acid and other poisons that produce rheumatism, gout, congestion of the liver, kidneys and other organs.

Dr. De Lacy Evans, before quoted, says:

"Distilled water, used as a drink, is absorbed directly into the blood, the solvent property of which it increases to an extent that it will keep salts already existing in the blood in solution, prevent their undue deposition in the various organs and structures, and favor their elimination by the different exeretæ. If the same be taken in large quantities, or if it be the only liquid taken into the system, either as a drink or as a medium for the ordinary decoctions of tea, coffee, etc., it will in time tend to remove those earthy compounds which have accumulated in the system, the effects of which usually become manifest as the age of forty or fifty years is attained.

"The daily use of distilled water facilitates the removal of deleterious compounds from the body by means of the excrete, and therefore tends to the prolongation of existence.

"The use of distilled water may be especially recommended after the age of thirty-five or forty years is attained; it will of itself prevent many diseases to which mankind is especially subject after this age; and were it generally used, gravel, stone in the bladder, and other diseases due to the formation of calculi in different parts of the system, would be much more uncommon.”

The presence of organic and mineral substances in water destroys this solvent power in proportion to the quantity present, and, while not removing from the body as much as it should, it also leaves some of its own impurities in the system.

A German chemist, who evidently knows nothing about physiology and the laws of life and health, has stated that distilled water is absolutely poisonous, and that it is dangerous to use it because it dissolves the earthy salts and removes them from the system. This is one of its most valuable properties, for it only dissolves the

excess of these salts, which are deposited throughout the system as foreign substances, and thus frees the body from their healthimpairing and age-producing effects. It has no such an effect upon the living tissues of the body. If distilled water is a poison, then God is poisoning his children every day of their lives, for He distills every drop of water on the earth over and over again continually.

If it is a poison, why did I not die years ago, for I have used distilled water nearly twenty years? During the past year I have probably taken into my stomach, in food and as drink, an average of a gallon a day-365 gallons, or nearly 12 barrels of distilled water, and I still live-in fact, I am more alive than I was one year ago? Do I look as though I had been seriously poisoned? If this is poison, then I want more of it, for the more I use, the stronger, healthier and more active I become.

If you will not say anything about it, I will tell you a secret. The people who are trying to sell any kind of water they can get hold of as being the product of their particular "fountain of youth," guaranteed to cure all the ills of the flesh, have industriously circulated this statement of the German chemist for financial reasons of their own.

Other Effects of Distilled Water.

For beautifying the complexion, the external, combined with the internal, use of distilled water is the most effective agent. A noted physician says:

"To insure a permanently smooth and clear complexion, within the reach of all, wash the face and hands daily with distilled water. its great solvent power will produce a wonderful effect."

Nothing but the purest distilled water should be used in the sick -oom, for the toilet or nursery, or for cleansing the teeth, mouth,

etc.

Frequent washing of the head with hot distilled water, combined with vigorous manipulation, is the most effective means of stopping the falling out of the hair and of restoring it when lost, in cases where the hair follicles are still alive. I have known several cures by this means.

The other internal medical uses of distilled water are many and varied, but I will only have time to refer to a few of the most important, hoping some of those who join in the discussion will do the subject full justice.

As an emetic to wash out a foul stomach as a soiled dish is

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