The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

1.78

A CHEMICO-VITAL PROCESS.

Uses of Water in the Human System.
By the table of analysis of the human body, we see
that three fourths of its weight consists in water. Without water no vital process could be carried on for a
single moment. The blood must be liquid or it could
not circulate, and not circulating, no elements could be
supplied, and none could be removed; and then oxygen
and hydrogen are very important elements in the composition of the organs as well as the blood. And thus
water occupies a position in the economy of the system
which fully explains the importance which seems to be
attached to it in nature, rendering it necessary to institute that complicated arrangement for its production,
circulation, and minute distribution over the face of the
earth which we have been considering.
But one of the most important, and to me the most
interesting purposes subserved by water, is that chemicovital process by which the temperature. of the body is
regulated so as, under all circumstances and external
temperatures to which it can be exposed, internally to
remain of the same temperature. That certainly is an
admirable adjustment of vital and chemical principles,
which, without regard to external clothing, or external
temperature, or the kind of food taken, or the amount
of exercise used, shall keep the internal temperature at
98~, so that in the same individual, under all ordinary
circumstances in health, it will not vary from that point
more than one or two degrees, in summer or winter, at
rest or in violent exercise.