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

188 CAN WATER BE SUPPLIED IN FOOD?

of the food usually eaten consists of water; and therefore, using an average amount of vegetable food, we
get more water than the natural proportion of that element in the human system. And if our liquid excretions were no greater in proportion than the solid, we
should need no drink. Noticing this fact, some of our
ultra dietetic reformers have inferred that the intention
of Nature was that water should be supplied through
food alone; and Alcott succeeded in abstaining entirely
for a whole year from all kinds of liquids except such
as were furnished in natural food, as milk, vegetables,
fruits, &c.; but I often thought, when seeing him
moping about the streets, looking like a walking
mummy, that his personal appearance did not very
highly recommend his principles. He said, however,
that he did not experience the sensation of thirst more
than two or three times, and that after copious perspiration from working in hot weather. His food was
entirely vegetable, and he ate six pounds in a day,
which would give him five pounds of fluid daily, - an
amount, it would seem, abundantly sufficient for such
a desiccated specimen of humanity. - He needed more
nutriment rather than more water, his gastronomic
capacity not being sufficient to contain, in such food,
the requisite amount of nutrition.
But that Nature intended partially to supply water
to the system through the medium of food, is evident
from the fact to which I have before alluded, that food
produced in warm climates, and intended for warm
weather, when water is most needed to supply the