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PART V.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FALLACY OF POPULAR OBJECTIONS EXPOSED.

Pure water is the best drink for persons of all temperaments: it promotes a free and equable circulation of the blood, on which the due performance of every animal function depends. Water drinkers are not only the most active and vigorous, but the most healthy and cheerful.-FREDERICK HOFFMAN.

The more simple life is supported the better, and he is happy who considers water the best drink. DR. PARIS.

Man is naturally a water drinker, and when he is so, seldom fails to be cheerful and happy; his first step in the descending scale is to become a drinker of wine. MICHAELIS.

AMONG the numerous objections made in reference to an abandonment of the use of intoxicating liquors, are those by which their necessity is urged as a restorative of strength in cases of extraordinary physical exertion. One of the most deeply rooted of these notions is, that which supposes stimulating liquors to be beneficial in enabling men to endure a greater amount of physical exertion. Intoxicating liquors merely stimulate or accelerate the vital actions, and do not increase the actual strength of the physical powers; on the contrary, by calling those powers into unnatural action, they diminish their permanent capability, and thus exhaust that vital energy, which, unless thus improperly interfered with, is capable of undergoing extraordinary and long continued exertion, supported and renovated only by plain and wholesome nutriment. This important fact was well known to the ancients, among whom physical improvement was made a regular branch of education. They were, indeed, well acquainted with the fact, that those who abstain altogether from the use of intoxicating liquors are best enabled to attain the greatest amount of physical strength. Cyrus, after the Medes and Hyrcanians,

had returned from pursuing the Assyrians, and were sat down to a repast, desired them to send some bread only to the Persians, who would then be sufficiently provided with all they required, either for eating or drinking. Hunger was their only sauce, and the water from the river was their only drink; to such a diet they had been accustomed from the earliest period of their lives. The Roman soldiers, during their arduous and successful campaigns, made use of vinegar and water only, in order to assuage their thirst, Each soldier was obliged to carry a bottle of vinegar on his person, and when necessary, he mixed a small portion of it with water.* The Carthaginian soldiers were expressly forbidden to taste wine during their campaigns. The same may be said of other mighty nations among the ancients. What armies, the narrations of whose exploits are recorded in history, ever endured anything like the amount of labour, or signalized themselves by victories so triumphant in their character as those of these celebrated nations? Facts of this nature present the most indubitable proof, that in ancient times, the use of intoxicating liquors was not considered necessary for the preservation of bodily health, nor were they, on any occasion, used to enable mankind to endure extraordinary fatigue.

After their numerous victories, and when they had in some degree, become vitiated by the enervating customs of the nations whom they had conquered, the Roman soldiers acquired a love of wine. When the people complained to the Emperor Augustus of the dearness and scarcity of wine, he replied, "My son-in-law, Agrippa, has preserved you from thirst by the canals which he has made for you." A well-merited reproof of their unworthy and degenerate murmurs.

The celebrated Emperor Niger, made use of a similar observation. He was remarkable for his love of discipline, and in conformity with the ancient regulation never suffered his soldiers to drink wine; water only was their cus tomary beverage. This gave considerable umbrage to the soldiers. Niger, however, resolutely insisted on their compliance. On one occasion, some soldiers who guarded the frontiers of Egypt, requested him to supply them with some wine; "What do you say?" he replied, “you have the delicious waters of the Nile, and wine is unnecessary for you." At another time, some of his troops having

• Lips. De Re Militari Romanæ.

† Sueton. in vitâ Augusti.

been conquered by the Saracens, by way of excuse, pretended that this event was owing to their interdiction from wine. "An excellent reason," said Niger, in reply "for your conquerors drink nothing but water!" Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, A. D. 61—urged the subsequent degeneracy of the Romans, as an argument against their prowess in battle. While preparing for action, to avenge the wrongs which had been inflicted on her people by their cruel conquerors, this intrepid female made an eloquent appeal to her army, in the course of which she drew a striking comparison between the effeminate habits of the Romans, and the simple but invigorating practices of her own country. "To us," she observed, "every herb and root are food; every juice is our oil, and WATER IS OUR WINE.' παν σε υδωρ οινοε

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The experience of modern armies, in most respects corresponds with that of the ancients. The soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, for example, during their laborious campaigns, carried with them knapsacks containing oaten meal, which when hungry they mixed with water. On this diet, for a considerable period, they principally subsisted, and sustained great fatigue in the full vigour of health. Such also, at that, and much earlier, as well as later times, was the constant practice of the Scotch armies, whose athletic powers are quite proverbial.

Dr. J. Barker, of the United States, relates that on General Jackson being once asked, if soldiers required spirituous liquors, that commander immediately remarked, that he had observed, that in hard duty and excessive cold, those performed the one, and endured the other better, who drank nothing but water.

A respectable individual who had been for thirty years in the army informed Professor Edgar, of Ireland, that he had been in twenty-seven general engagements, he had suffered every vicissitude of weather, and had not unfrequently found his companions dead by his side. Not many years ago, he and above 130 others, left England, for active service abroad; of these, five were then living; and he attributes the preservation of their lives, to their having entirely abstained from the use of strong drink. A gentle. man who heard this interesting statement, adds the following corroborative testimony: he had served for the period of thirteen years in the hottest climates; he had since been exposed to the severest winters of Canada, and to the rapid change of the American climate; he had nine times crossed the Atlantic, and attributed his sound health, being

then in his fiftieth year, to his having abstained entirely from the use of intoxicating liquors.*

The testimony of such nations as in the present day abstain entirely from the use of intoxicating liquors, is highly worthy of consideration. Among these, we have several examples of a very interesting character.

Mr. Buckingham states, that in his Eastern Travels, he met with men among the nations of water drinkers, whose height, (which, seldom averaged less than from five feet eight inches to six feet,) and whose general robust and healthy appearance exhibited a very remarkable contrast with the sickly, emaciated bodies of the Europeans. In Hindostan, for instance, though the labour is as severe as in any part of the world, and performed principally under the influence of a vertical and burning sun, yet the inhabitants drink only water. One species of exertion to which they are subject is unknown in England, and strikingly exhibits their muscular force and capability. When individuals undertake long and fatiguing journeys, such, for instance, as from Calcutta to Delhi, they are not carried by horses in carriages, but by men, in palanquins, who, naked to the waist, walk, or rather trot at the rate of five or six miles an hour, the perspiration trickling from their pores like rain, and yet these men drink nothing stronger than water.†

Smollett, in his Travels in Italy, remarks, in opposition to the general notion, that beer strengthens the animal frame, that the porters of Constantinople, who never drink

* The following corroborative testimony, was made by a gentleman of great military eminence, in a communication addressed to Sir J. Sinclair: "I have wandered a good deal about the world, and never followed any prescribed rule in anything; my health has been tried in all ways; and by the aids of temperance and hard work, I have worn out two armies, in two wars, and probably could wear out another, before my period of old age arrives; I eat no animal food, drink no wine or malt liquor, or spirits of any kind: I wear no flannel, neither regard wind nor rain, heat nor cold, where business is in the way." "-Code of Health and Longevity, by Sir J. Sinclair, p. 387. † During Mr. Buckingham's residence at Calcutta, a number of men came down from the Himalaya mountains, for the purpose of exhibiting their strength. Mr. Buckingham and several Europeans, went to see them, and he was astonished and delighted to witness such beautiful figures. แ There they stood," says he, "like the statue of Hercules, with all their muscular powers finely developed, their broad and expansive shoulders and breasts, with their firm muscles like rolling waves, and such as he had never before seen, but in the sculpture of the ancients. The Europeans, anxious to test their strength, selected some of the best men they could from among the English grenadiers, and the vessels in the harbour, in order to excel them in feats of strength; but with all the efforts they could make, in lifting, hurling the discus, vaulting, running, and wrestling, each of the Indians in question, was found equal to one three quarters of our men. The former, nevertheless, had from their infancy upward, never tasted anything stronger than water."

anything stronger than water, will carry a load of seven cwt., which he observes, is a labour that no English porter would attempt to undertake The Bedouin Arabs also, whose duties are of the most fatiguing and harassing description, perform their labours in the most cheerful manner, with very little nutritious food, and with no drink stronger than water.*

Among other interesting facts of a similar description, may be cited one concerning the Gauchos, inhabitants of the Pampas, related by Sir Francis Head, who himself witnessed their interesting habits. Riding, it appears, forms their principal, and indeed almost their only exercise. They will continue on horseback day after day, galloping over their boundless plains, under a burning sun, and performing labours almost of an incredible description. Sir Francis, very forcibly points to us the cause of this extraordinary physical capacity. "As the constant food of the Gauchos is beef and water, his constitution is so strong, that he is able to endure great fatigue, and the distances he will ride, and the number of hours he will remain on horseback, would hardly be credited."+

A modern traveller thus describes them: "The Bedouins of the caravan, whose duty it is to drive the camels, are the most indefatigable fellows in the world; from daylight in the morning, they are on foot in the front, shouting constantly to keep the animals together. On finishing the journey, they unload them, and arrange the camp, then follow them to pasture, and tend them lest they stray, till nightfall; when they gather into their proper places, and rub tar over those that have the mange, or have been sheared. They sleep in the midst of their charge, ready to jump up on the least noise or motion, and take their turn in the guards of the night. An hour before the camp is in motion, they are on the alert in the morning, to commence the labour of a new day. They sleep like dogs whenever they have a moment to spare, and endure all this with no other food than coarse bread and a few vegetables; and with nothing to drink beyond the indifferent water of the way. "-Skinner's Travels, vol. ii. p. 109.

Sir Francis Head then proceeds to add his own testimony in proof of the correctness of the above remarks. "When I first crossed the Pampas, I went with a carriage, and although I had been accustomed to riding all my life, I could not at all ride with the Peons, (drivers of the carriage,) and after galloping five or six hours, was obliged to get into the carriage; but after 1 had been riding for three or four months, and had lived upon beef and water, I found myself in a certain condition, which I can only describe by saying, that I felt no exertion could kill me, although I constantly arrived so completely exhausted, that I could not speak, yet a few hours' sleep on my saddle, on the ground, always so completely restored me, that for a week I could daily be upon my horse before sunrise, could ride till two or three hours after sunset, and have really tired out ten or twelve horses. This will explain the immense distances which people in South America are said to ride, which I am confident could only be done on beef and water." -Rough Notes taken during some Rapid Journeys across the Pampas and among the Andes, p. 29.

The fallacious notion that the fatigue of travelling is lessened by the use of wines, is completely disproved, by a trial of the contrary practice. "The

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